Hassel - Privatspanarna (2012) Reviews

• The movie feels old and cheep.

  daniel-holmberg2012-11-29

  The movie is one of the worst i have seen. It is a tragic tale of a worn and retired Roland Hassle. His gray life revolves around the assassination of Olof Palme. Roland and his friends, who does not have any life either, do different reconstructions of the murder and the circumstances around it. Maybe it's the reward, maybe it's pure bitterness that makes him continue doing what he is doing. The film is in grainy blue-gray tones and it feels like the film was rented in a video shop 1986. The film contains a few fumbling attempts at humorous elements. But the whole thing just gets more tragic and it feels somehow redemptive when the movie ends.

• Hilariously bitter, brilliant – but an acquired taste

  doktorcyborg2017-02-04

  Although I here mention a few scenes from the film I wouldn't call them spoilers, since there, plot-wise, really is nothing to spoil. This is truly one of the most interesting, entertaining, confusing and brilliant films made in Sweden during the 21st Century… There are scenes in this film that are so hilariously bitter (can't find a better description). Berenett is great as the once- hardcore-cop now being old, retired, bitter and obsessed with the murder of Olof Palme. But don't expect any crime drama – this is NOTHING like the old Hassle films. But it such a brilliant idea to use this very well known Swedish crime-cop for this kind of movie. So many scenes… The opening with the gas masks… The ordering of the taxi for the most renowned conspiracy theorist (The Police Conspiracy) Sven Anér (playing himself, as do many of the private investigators, creating a very strange feeling in the film), and the following taxi ride with Tina Turner's »What's Love…» as a soundtrack over Anér's monologue. Pure genius! And the absolutely hopeless reconstructions… My favorite the »15 min's with a lawyer» at the local library, where the lawyer is no one less than Göran Lambertz, perhaps the most famous (and scolded) lawyers (and a former General Attorney) in Sweden. There's such sadness and absurd humour in this movie. But it's an acquired taste, for sure…