Dan ClayScandinavian crime drama like ID:A is all the rage at the moment.
Scandinavian crime drama
like ID:A is all the rage at the moment. With the success of The Killing paving the way for certain films to reach a wider
audience the end result can sometimes be highly effective (this month’s Headhunters for example) or in other
cases undeservedly riding on the bandwagon. Sadly, in the case of ID:A it’s too
much of the latter.
Horror fans will know what to expect, having seen
director Christian E. Christiansen’s The
Roommate last year and ID:A is about as average and run-of-the-mill a chase
thriller as that derivative horror was too.
Things start brightly though with an interesting
premise; a young woman wakes on a secluded riverbed with a bag full of cash and
no memory of who she is or how she came to be there. However, whereas The Bourne Identity had a fascinating back-story
behind its opening scene, it soon becomes apparent that ID:A’s heroine, Ida (Tuva Novotny) isn’t
blessed with a similarly engaging history.
Realising she’s Danish, Ida is soon off to
Copenhagen, a decision justified when she overhears a snippet of a famous opera
singer and recognises some kind of connection to him. It’s not long though
before the idyllic sounding life she returns to is turned upside down once it
emerges her famous operatic husband (Flemming
Enevold) isn’t quite as perfect as he seems.
If Haywire
hadn’t beaten Christiansen to it then ID:A might have been able to make
something of its strong female lead being pursued across Europe angle. Sadly
Ida’s cursed with an unappealing ‘70s throwback black wig clearly used to help
separate the film’s two timelines and a plot which veers in odd directions
before wrapping itself up far too neatly in the final few frames.
All of which means ID:A feels like a missed
opportunity to make the most of its interesting first quarter, even if Novotny
does her best to keep things believable while all around her is descending into
a familiar tale of car chases and bullet dodging. Thankfully both her and
Enevold elevate the film’s more talky scenes of exposition to develop the plot
at least in the midst of what is essentially one long chase movie.
French films of late have managed to take intriguing
premises and develop them into something either thoughtful (The Big Picture), fun (Point Blank) or at the very least
starring a high profile footballer (Switch).
Had ID:A done the same then at least it might have made for a film which you
want to remember rather than one you’re likely to forget.
