"The Return of the Dancing Master" or "Die Rückkehr des Tanzlehrers" is a Austrian/German collaboration from 2004, so this one has its 15th anniversary this year already. According to imdb, it is an English-language film in the original and while I have seen other statements too that fit in with two major characters being played by German native speakers it could be true because there are several Scandinavian actors in here and also some that are English native speakers. But it is not too important anyway. Director is Urs Egger from Switzerland and a whole lot of writers are credited here, including of course Mankell too, who wrote the book. Not read the book, so I cannot compare iit to the movie here. I have not seen too much from him, but Tobias Moretti in the lead here got me curious because I really like him as an actor and I find it awesome how his career turned out so nicely after his breakthrough on Kommissar Rex like 25 years ago. But back to this one here. It consists of two episodes of 90 minutes each, so you can watch the entire thing in pretty much exactly 3 hours if you want to, but I suggest splitting because each episode has lengths and problems already, so watching both at the same time will maybe really drag. I usually like a good crime story, but this is not it. They included so many pseudo-interesting references that just did not work out. The best example is really the cancer diagnosis for the protagonist, which added absolutely nothing and was just there. That's it. To depict how broken he is I guess, but it hd zero effect on me, even if we sometimes saw him struggle health-wise. Or another murder that happens at the end of the first episode and was supposed to get you really curious about the second, but it was so for the sake of it all that I had to cringe basically. The fact that the main character was not a welcome guest there was only slightly better, but the clashing between him and the police lieutenant in charge got repetitive eventually too. If you say, you call his superior of he won't leave, then do so. In general, the idea that he was not too welcome there was not elaborated on properly that it could have added to the movie. One character's question if their cops cannot solve it on their own is not enough. By the way, what were these cops doing really? They are nowhere except sometimes there to be nice or mean to the main character. It was just a bad movie from all kinds of perspectives.
This especially refers to Veronica Ferres. The fact that she received a Bambi for her turn here is really an insult to every other Bambi winner. Complete joke. The fact that maybe she was not as bad as she usually is does not make her awards-worthy by any definition. And still she had some bad moments, like when she asks Moretti's character in the first half if he wants to crash at her place (and obviously sleep with her). And the protagonist says no because he has a woman and child at home. And then in the second half, he still sleeps with her. That was also a pretty bad plot development. It was probably in the book, but it just did nothing for me at all. Probably because I also don't find Ferres attractive at all. I know some men do. As for the final plot twist for her character I don't wanna go too much into detail. I did not really see it coming. But I did not really care either at that point anymore and once again, it wasn't particularly well acted. As for Oscar winner Maximilian Schell, who is also on the film poster here on imdb, not too much to say about him. He is virtually inexistent in the first half and also does not have a lot screen time in the second, basically just one scene near the end and very brief inclusions in-between. It is sort of embarrassing what they made with a cast of Moretti, Schell, Marsh, Andersson, Byrne and a few other really successful and established actors here. This could, no should, have been so much better. But it is sort of evidence that even the most talented cast (well lets call it that despite Ferres) cannot save a bad screenplay. Nothing I expetced from this movie was really fulfilled. The isolation element about the main character is not depicted in an interesting manner at all. We just have to believe them when they call him a lone wolf. Sweden's landscapes or the country in general being used to create a certain atmosphere and tone is another field that is crucial in Wallander and Scandinavian films where they came extremely short. And the worst is as weak as the entire thing starts and stays in the first 90 minutes, the second 90 minutes are even another step down and I was really close to giving this one just 1 star out of 5. But I shall be generous here because it is not complete failure territory. Nonetheless I still would not recommend it to anybody, not even to my fellow Moretti fans because he cannot keep this mess together either. Pretty sure I am never gonna watch this again, also thanks to cringgeworthy moments like the victim dancing with the doll which they considered so crucial that they included it several times in flashbacks. But it was just pathetic. Or this film also depicts nicely how an actually really interesting idea about a subject I am interested in (fascism) turns into garbage with the wrong writers in charge. Big thumbs-down overall.
This especially refers to Veronica Ferres. The fact that she received a Bambi for her turn here is really an insult to every other Bambi winner. Complete joke. The fact that maybe she was not as bad as she usually is does not make her awards-worthy by any definition. And still she had some bad moments, like when she asks Moretti's character in the first half if he wants to crash at her place (and obviously sleep with her). And the protagonist says no because he has a woman and child at home. And then in the second half, he still sleeps with her. That was also a pretty bad plot development. It was probably in the book, but it just did nothing for me at all. Probably because I also don't find Ferres attractive at all. I know some men do. As for the final plot twist for her character I don't wanna go too much into detail. I did not really see it coming. But I did not really care either at that point anymore and once again, it wasn't particularly well acted. As for Oscar winner Maximilian Schell, who is also on the film poster here on imdb, not too much to say about him. He is virtually inexistent in the first half and also does not have a lot screen time in the second, basically just one scene near the end and very brief inclusions in-between. It is sort of embarrassing what they made with a cast of Moretti, Schell, Marsh, Andersson, Byrne and a few other really successful and established actors here. This could, no should, have been so much better. But it is sort of evidence that even the most talented cast (well lets call it that despite Ferres) cannot save a bad screenplay. Nothing I expetced from this movie was really fulfilled. The isolation element about the main character is not depicted in an interesting manner at all. We just have to believe them when they call him a lone wolf. Sweden's landscapes or the country in general being used to create a certain atmosphere and tone is another field that is crucial in Wallander and Scandinavian films where they came extremely short. And the worst is as weak as the entire thing starts and stays in the first 90 minutes, the second 90 minutes are even another step down and I was really close to giving this one just 1 star out of 5. But I shall be generous here because it is not complete failure territory. Nonetheless I still would not recommend it to anybody, not even to my fellow Moretti fans because he cannot keep this mess together either. Pretty sure I am never gonna watch this again, also thanks to cringgeworthy moments like the victim dancing with the doll which they considered so crucial that they included it several times in flashbacks. But it was just pathetic. Or this film also depicts nicely how an actually really interesting idea about a subject I am interested in (fascism) turns into garbage with the wrong writers in charge. Big thumbs-down overall.