'The Keeper of Lost Causes' is neither the first nor the last crime drama you'll see featuring a bad-tempered, middle-aged cop nurturing personal suffering and who plays by nobody's rules but his own. But it loses additional points for its ridiculous villain, with his implausible motivations and his Dr. Evil-like plan to murder his victim, which predictably is foiled only at the final moment. The weird thing here is that the tone of the drama is down-to-earth, realistic, yet the crime is almost comically preposterous (and the story of how the hero uncovers the truth scarcely less so). It's definitely not the finest hour of "Scandi-Noir".

As this Danish drama opens three policemen are preparing to raid a property; they go in and moments later one of them is dead the others seriously injured… one of them permanently crippled. The third Carl Mørck returns to work six months later… he hoped to return to the homicide unit but instead he finds himself heading the new 'Department Q'; it sounds intriguing but it is just a small department that will be dedicated to formally closing various cold cases. He is not expected to do any investigation; just tie up loose ends and declare the cases closed. When he gets there he finds his assistant, Assad, has selected a few possible first cases. The case of a female politician who went missing while on a ferry catches his eye. It is believed that she committed suicide by jumping overboard but the evidence doesn't feel right; she had been travelling with her mentally disabled brother and witnesses suggested that she had been trying to find him just before she disappeared… hardly the behaviour of somebody preparing to kill themselves. Carl and Assad start to look deeper trying to find men she may have been involved with and even going to Sweden to follow a lead. This does not impress his boss. Meanwhile we are shown what actually happened to the woman; she was kidnapped and placed in a hyperbaric chamber by an unknown captor who increases the pressure each year and doesn't talk to her in the intervening time and supplying her needs through a hatch. Ultimately he shows himself and states that the next time she sees him he will kill her… will Carl and Assad unravel the case and get to her in time or is it already too late?.This dark thriller starts well with a shocking opening that serves to show us why our protagonist has been given his non-job in Department Q and also his less than happy demeanour. Nikolaj Lie Kaas does a fine job as Carl Mørck and Fares Fares contrasts nicely as the much happier Assad. The case they undertake is both interesting and disturbing; what happens to kidnap victim Merete Lynggaard is unsettling to say the least; the thought of being kept in total isolation with nothing to do for years his horrifying to consider… and that is before we see how she has to deal with toothache! Sonja Richter does a great job convincing us that her character is really undergoing horrific treatment. The ending does require some suspension of disbelief as Carl and Assad close in on the kidnapper just as his five year plan to torment then kill Merete is coming to a close. We also get one of the oldest clichés of the genre; cops solving the case after they have been suspended from duty. These minor details can be easily forgiven though as the story is so gripping. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Scandi-Noir.These comments are based on watching the film in Danish with English subtitles.

This was the first entry in the Trilogy, but I had seen "The Absent One" first. It is an excellent series so far, and by my reckoning "The Keeper of Lost Causes" is the better of the two. The detective pairing of Morck and Assad is a winning one and they are back in their outpost in Dept.Q (cold cases), where Morck has been exiled for insubordination and because he is difficult to get along with. He has also been fighting bouts of depression and drinks too much.He has been told to dispatch cold cases with a paragraph or two but he insists on investigating them. In this one he looks for a woman who has been declared a suicide, but instead follows his instincts and investigates. He is reprimanded and suspended, but he is obsessive and determined, and very resourceful."The Keeper of Lost Causes" adds tension and suspense to the winning formula as seen in "The Absent One", in addition to a terrific screenplay and acting turns by the principals. I hope they make a whole series out of these Danish films as they are better than anything made in Hollywood these days, and not since the film noir heyday of the 40's.

I've watched this movie now because I'm scheduling a thematic channel.It is a phenomenon. The detective literature and films from the Nordic countries boom. Not only from Larsson but since the Henning Mankell's inimitable Inspector Walander. And always with its trademark: an undercurrent of social criticism.The Q department is a very good idea that will gives us good detective stories to fans of the genre. Some clichés tarnish the story: the strongly different pair of cops, the detective alone and tormented, the chiefs are always fools ... But the plot is smoother, enough to enjoy.I look forward to the next chapter: Fasandraeberne.