Konterr
Brilliant and touching
WillSushyMedia
This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Marva-nova
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Fulke
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Leofwine_draca
FALSE TRAIL, a Swedish slice of crime noir, is a follow up to 1996's THE HUNTERS, and sees returning protagonist Erik Backstrom (Rolf Lassgard) back to solve more crimes in the chilly Scandinavian wilderness. Well, it took them fifteen years to make a sequel, but the wait was worth it: I find this to be a superior follow up in terms of excitement, thriller aspects, and pacing.THE HUNTERS was a similarly-plotted story but had a different style of execution: it was darker, more of a family tragedy, and rather depressing. FALSE TRAIL is equally dark but has more of a conventional detective feel to it, a battle of wits between good and evil. Some viewers will find it the lesser piece, but I preferred it. It helps that Peter Stormare (FARGO) has a huge and complex role and is absolutely fantastic in it, the best work yet I've seen from the actor.Inevitably, the taciturn and grumpy Backstrom is the film's guiding force, and Lassgard is a delight to watch as ever. The production values are better than ever, and Kjell Sundvall seems to have really grown as a director, crafting a well-polished and exciting thriller in which the stakes are never less than high. Unpredictable, involving, and harrowing, FALSE TRAIL is one to watch.
robert-temple-1
This is a masterpiece of nail-biting intensity. It is a sequel to a film made as long ago as 1996 by the same director, Kjell Sundvall, with the same actor, Rolf Lassgard, called THE HUNTERS (JÄGARNA, 1996). Lassgard in both films plays Stockholm detective Erik Bäckström, who returns to his roots in the wild and remote northern part of Sweden, a land of vast conifer forests, hunters, and small introverted settlements where everybody knows everybody else far too well. In this sequel of many years later, there are a few wistful flashbacks lasting only a few flickering moments, but otherwise the story is full-on and right-now. The characters portrayed in this film are the Swedish version of 'hicks in the sticks'. and there is more than a whiff of DELIVERANCE (1972) about the atmosphere. All those men going out in gangs with guns to murder elk! There is an unpleasant scene in the film where a female elk is standing twitching her ears and looking with curiosity at the humans, and she is then shot in the forehead and falls over dead. There are a few gruesome scenes which are even more unpleasant. Everyone in this film carries guns frequently, and you would think they had all run for Vice President with John McCain. Rolf Lassgard is marvellous as the central character. He exudes so much gravitas, it could sink a battleship. He is one of those Scandinavians who doesn't have to say anything, he just makes a slight expression in his rather dour face, and you get the message. One can imagine him communicating with Sarah Lund by microscopic twitches of his facial muscles, and no words need pass between them. This is such a nail-biter that unless you wrap your hands in towels you won't have any fingernails left. As to who killed the girl Elin, when, and how, and with which rifle, well that would be telling. But this film is about far more than a murder mystery. It is about searing family tensions, battered wives and children, hypocrisy, cover-ups, psychotic obsessions, criminal ingenuity, corrupt police, desperate danger, and throughout it all, there is the pervasive atmosphere of fear and intimidation of a small community which dare not face its own devils. There is also sadness and redemption. It's all there, you just have to be strong. You will be totally mesmerised by this drama, which is unrelenting, and is what is called 'character-driven' rather than 'plot-driven'. It is about people, some of whom you would definitely not want to meet. But Rolf Lassgard gets my vote for best cop of the year, and also for Mr. Nice Guy of the Frozen North.
Holly Keating (hollybellekeating)
False Trail is named, and put under the heading, of a thriller. Because of the lack of actually thrilling thrillers, this title didn't mean much to me. But Kjell Sundvall's movie really does as it says on the tin.In this Swedish sequel, we follow Erik Bäckström, an aging policeman called down to his old home town where a young woman has gone missing. Here we watch a murder case unfold, and are not only confronted with Erik's painful past, but are lead into a deeper, more sinister mystery than we initially imagined.What first hits you about this movie is the dark, dense setting. Set in the picturesque woods of Norrland Sweden, you're struck by wintry lakes and friendly faces. In the beginning, the characters seem like boring, basically normal people. But when we delve into the mystery, and the first inklings of doubt and suspicion creep in, things begin to escalate, and our opinions change at every twist.This movie really kept me alive and thinking. Its plot twists were calculated and realistic, and the acting was superb. Peter Stromare's character was fantastically played; everything we once thought we knew about him is warped and distorted until we see the character that he is. Through tongue-in-cheek gore and unprecedented acts of violence, this story will make you jump in your seat and question every motive.Without giving too much away, notice Sundvall's directing; cutting into the truth like a fly on the wall, and letting the chaos run wild around him, until the characters realise the daunting reality just a step too late. Excellently done. In total, a well thought-through movie that did indeed thrill.
info-16827
The Interrogator Erik Backstrom (Rolf Lassgård) is forced to return to his former home village to solve a murder mystery, in which the local polices and some hunters and even Erik's family seems to be involved. Soon, the conflicts are in full action, especially between Erik and the local police Torsten (Peter Stormare). Torsten does not support Erik very much in his job and has, for some personal reasons, already arrested a suspected perpetrator. Eric takes great risks when he starts digging in the criminal material of the horrible murder case.Director Kjell Sundin was right when he, after some hesitation, decided to make a successor of Jägarna (The Hunters). There are some flashbacks in the second film, but it doesn't matter. The second film stands on its own and the drama has got its own story with all the ingredients for a strong thriller and with star actors performing convincingly in the spectacular northern landscape of Sweden. The movie is filmed in the small place Överkalix and its surroundings.Peter Stormare makes an impressing role portrait of the psychopathic policeman Torsten. With small and powerful expressions he excellently performs the complex character. Stormare is a brilliant and talented actor, who can turn stereotypes into great art. Rolf Lassgård is an experienced actor and convincing as the homicide detective, but sometimes falls into manners in his attempts to make the rather flat role more interesting. Annika Nordin as Torsten's betrayed wife Karin is, however, too sophisticated and beautiful for the part. Eero Milonoff performs with force the rough drinker Jari, that with his friend Esa (Juho Milonoff) are the social problems of the village. The film photo by Jallo Faber is beautiful, even if the sharpness could have been better. But he captures the expressions of the actors very well and seduces us with the grandiose views of the landscape. The writers Bjorn Carlstrom and Stefan Thunberg have created a strong story with an excellent and realistic dialog.Unfortunately this exciting down-to-earth drama turns into a melodramatic operatic final that does not give the movie full points, even if the story maybe couldn't end in another way. And the closing scenes with the well-polished victims along with Erik in an idyllic winter landscape, feels too heavenly. The consequences of the violent drama should have left some traces with the victims, who actually got life-threatening damages in the film.But Jägarna 2 (The Hunters 2) got eight out 10, for an exciting movie with talented actors and filmmakers of which Sweden has many reasons to be proud.