Ole Bornedal has been quietly churning out quiet but compelling dramas just waiting for American audiences to really take note of him – which they should. He first caught the eye of American audiences when he remade his Danish hit Nightwatch with a new cast including Ewan McGregor, Nick Nolte, Josh Brolin, and Patricia Arquette. It wasn’t received as well here as it was in Denmark, though it was by no means a negative reception, from then on his films enjoyed a considerably smaller fanfare stateside. Even though his films aren’t getting large theatrical releases, his incredibly strong film Just Another Love Story should be reason enough for people to seek him out, and now that he’s added the brilliant Deliver Us from Evil to his lineup, there’s no reason for his name to remain in obscurity.
Deliver Us from Evil is the story of a man undeservedly thrust into the vigilante crosshairs of a town courtesy of lies and prejudice. After an intoxicated Lars (Jens Andersen) strikes and kills beloved town matriarch Anna (Lone Lindorff) on a country road, he gives into his gut instinct and blames the death on a Bosnian refugee living in town, who quickly becomes the target of everyone’s vengeful malice. Just as Lars thinks he’s off the hook, his brother (Lasse Rimmer) offers the unjustly accused man safe haven in his home, creating an atmosphere of distrust and misplaced anger both in and outside of the house. The word “atmosphere” is vague, but to provide too much description into what it entails takes away from the emotional heft of the film, and so it’s as close to a spoiler as you can get for a film as charged as this one.
What could have been a very slow drama gets large injections of tension from Bornedal’s perfect direction and timing. The superb cast of Rimmer, Andersen, and Lene Nystrom push the film forward with flawless chemistry and bring the bottled tension within the house to increasingly shocking breaking points. Handled any worse and some of the truly brutal scenes would feel like ploys to reel in an audience, but as Bornedal keeps his audience rapt to his subjects, the film never feels like it’s going for shock value. Each brutality, whether verbal, emotional or physical, feels like the all-too-appropriate thunderclap to accompany Bornedal’s bottled lightning.
DVD Bonus Features
The disc has three behind-the-scenes featurettes which make for interesting viewing if you finish the film and find yourself appropriately wowed.
"Deliver Us From Evil" is on sale June 28, 2011 and is not rated. Drama, Thriller. Written and directed by Ole Bornedal. Starring Lene Rystrom, Lasse Rimmer, Jens Andersen, Lone Lindorff.
