In Order of Disappearance

A Norwegian Death Wish that delivers plenty of explicit violence (with tongue firmly in cheek), filmmaker Hans Petter Moland's In Order of Disappearance puts a new spin on a familiar yarn. Stellan Skarsgård stars as Nils, a veteran snowplow driver wrecked by the tragic death of his son. Although the cause is officially listed as a heroin overdose, Nils comes to believe that the boy was actually a victim in a turf war between rival drug gangs, and wrongly fingered for stealing part of a shipment. Nils plots revenge, leaving multiple bodies in his wake as he works his way through the various levels of a local Norwegian gang until he identifies its leader, a vicious yuppie known as “the Count” (Pål Sverre Hagen). During this process, he also ramps up the gang's bloody infighting with their rivals--the Serbian mafia--and in a final ploy arranges a full-scale gun battle between the two groups and a personal showdown with the Count. The carnage throughout is graphic, but Moland maintains a cheeky tone, with amusing stretches of dialogue (such as a disquisition on the plushness of Norwegian prisons). Offering a satisfying mix of tragedy, farce, and melodrama, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)