FLICKERING LIGHTS

Denmark, 2000, 109 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Anders Thomas Jetson.

Flickering Lights is an ugly gangster film without any redeeming features. It seems clearly influenced by Tarantino type thrillers but lacks the wit and some of the insight of Tarantino.

Four gangsters played off their money and drug wars against a Belgian criminal in Copenhagen. They take the money and the leader decides to make a restaurant in the forest. Flashbacks are given allegedly to explain the traumas of childhood that made the men as they are. However, they are completely brutal often to one another, as exhibited in ruthless hunting in the forest and finally in a confrontation with the Belgian and his henchman. There is also a brutal attitude towards women the leader bashing one of the men's girlfriend without any comeback or apology.

While there might seem to be some hope in the criminals moving away from their gangster way of life to setting up the restaurant, it is completely undercut by the thug mentality of each individual as well as their gangster and thug behaviour.