The Promised Land (2023)

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://fandomwire.com/the-promised-land-venice-film-festival-review-mads-mikke
lsen-shines-once-again/ "The Promised Land is a profound character study of how personal ambitions and desires inevitably will fail without love, compassion, and everything else that makes us human. Accompanied by somber cinematography and an atmospheric score, the cast delivers outstanding performances, especially Mads Mikkelsen who utilizes all his experience to drive the story with a magnetic display. Heavy, predictable, and somewhat repetitive at times, but totally worth the ticket." Rating: B+

Mads Mikkelsen is in his element here as the determined pioneer Ludvig Kahlen. He has been a soldier in the Danish army and has now set his heart on cultivating some salty heathland on a barren Jutland. Fortunately for him, King Frederik V is keen to see this land settled and become more productive, so he is encouraged to go and farm there. His arrival ruffles the feathers of local grandee Frederik De Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg) who considers the land to be his, and who makes it clear that he will make life awkward for his new neighbour. Relations are not helped when he takes in a pair of runaway servants - "Ann Barbara" (Amanda Collin) and husband "Johannes" (Morten Hee Andersen) and then falls for the man's aristocratic cousin Edel Helene (Kristine Kujath Thorp) to whom De Schinkel wishes to be married - cementing his place amongst a somewhat sceptical nobility. With the pot simmering along nicely now, things start to go missing. There's a pilferer about. Kahlen quickly discovers that it's a young girl who lives with the local Romany population and pretty quickly "Anmai Mus" (Melina Hagberg) is an extra mouth for them to feed. De Schinkel isn't averse to some underhand methods to thwart the would-be farmer and so resorts to increasingly violent, cruel, even murderous tactics that make the tasks of staying within the law and of growing potatoes almost impossible - but he doesn't quite appreciate the guile and ingenuity of Kahlen. This is a story of perseverance and determination, it's also a story of love and of acceptance. Indeed, for just about everyone here the goal is to find some roots, a place to call home, a family, maybe even an identity. There evolves a good chemistry between Mikkelsen, Collin and the convincing young Hagberg and Bennebjerg - well he gives the distinct impression that he doesn't come from the deepest of gene pools really quite effectively. It is prone to the odd meander at times, especially as it gets up an head of steam, but once in full flow this is quite a gripping adventure that marries the bleak and the optimistic whilst allowing Mikkelsen to do what he does best. Well worth watch.

I do love me a Mads Mikkelsen movie. 'The Promised Land' is a cracker! The two hour run time whizzes by, you can kinda guess where the (great) story is heading but at no point was that a hindrance to my enjoyment. The cinematography is splendid, as are the locations, costumes and basically every other element really. Simon Bennebjerg shows plenty of acting knack as (De) Schinkel. Others to impress are Melina Hagberg and Amanda Collin, though the whole cast produce fine displays. Mikkelsen himself puts in a performance of quality, very much the glue that holds everything together - as one would anticipate. He suits this sorta role to the absolute tee. This is up the top of my ranking of his filmography thus far, I'd in fact only rank it lower than 'A Royal Affair', 'Riders of Justice' and 'The Green Butchers'.