Director: Mikkel Nørgaard.
Starring: Frank Hvam, Casper Christensen, Mia Lyhne, Iben Hjejle, Marcuz Jess Petersen.
Certificate: 18.
Running Time: 93 minutes.
Synopsis: In order to prove his fatherhood potential to his pregnant girlfriend, Frank (Frank Hvam) ‘kidnaps’ her 12-year-old nephew and tags along on his best friend Casper’s (Casper Christensen) debauched weekend canoe trip
KLOWN is the film sequel to a Danish TV show that similarly to its big inspiration CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM is shot in an observational, single camera style and stars the two Danish comedians Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen as highly fictionalised versions of themselves. The film also serves up several cameo appearances from famous Danish people which, while amusing for Danes (mild-mannered composer Bent Fabricius-Bjerre as a sleazy brothel owner for instance), likely won’t register as particularly funny for people not in the know.
The central storyline is pretty farfetched from the word go and only grows more preposterous as the film plods along. Several times you can’t help but scream ‘NO ONE IS THAT STUPID!’ at the screen, especially prevalent in the ‘pearl necklace’ scene. The fact that most of the scenarios are not just implausible but rather completely insane takes away a lot of the film’s comedic potential as you just can’t possibly imagine this happening in real life. In contrast, a film like THE HANGOVER treads that same line of implausibility but somehow manages to mainly pull it off as they introduce the elements of the characters being wasted and the plot happening in the already larger than life city of Las Vegas. Here, we have two seemingly ordinary sober Danish guys in completely ordinary Danish environments, doing completely illogical and insane things. It just doesn’t add up in the same way.
The central relationship between Frank Hvam and his girlfriend’s nephew Bo (Marcuz Jess Petersen) is at times surprisingly sweet. Starting off extremely rocky as Frank basically kidnaps him in an attempt to show his girlfriend that he has the ability to be a father (one of the few times the stupidity actually gets called out by one of the main characters), the two soon grow close and share some quite nice scenes together.
Unfortunately, these rather sweet moments are completely overpowered by the film’s insistence on using gross out humour and generally acting extremely juvenile ninety-five percent of the time. The film just isn’t very funny, and while Frank Hvam is not completely unlikable as the central character, Casper Christensen is not just unlikable, but completely deplorable at times. You could argue that he gets his comeuppance in the film’s final, and probably biggest what the f*** moment, but the characters learn very little and therefore we are mostly just watching grown men acting like complete douchebags.
KLOWN is very much a matter of taste. Like the TV show, opinions have definitely been divided in its home country with many finding it hilarious. But in this reviewers opinion, the film is neither as shocking as it wants to be and not nearly as funny. Todd Phillips has bought the rights for an American remake with Danny McBride in a leading role, and this might actually be one of those times where a Hollywood remake toning the content slightly down might not actually be a bad thing.
KLOWN is released in UK cinemas on Friday 6th December.
