The lavish praise for this movie suggests that it was a very important film for its time and place. However, I find that Nattevagten/ Nightwatch isn't a particularly tense thriller.
The atmosphere of the morgue is interesting, and there are some suspenseful moments. But the narrative is lacking. There aren't enough suspects to go around. For a good whodunit, there need to be many viable suspects. I wanted to keep guessing, but I couldn't. In addition, a lot of the drama is created by people bumbling around making bad choices instead of getting caught in an expertly woven net.
The characters don't have much motivation for the things they do. An hour or so in, I didn't care what happened to them. The movie makes several joking references to clichés in Hollywood cinema, but doesn't seem that interested in breaking them.
The atmosphere of the morgue is interesting, and there are some suspenseful moments. But the narrative is lacking. There aren't enough suspects to go around. For a good whodunit, there need to be many viable suspects. I wanted to keep guessing, but I couldn't. In addition, a lot of the drama is created by people bumbling around making bad choices instead of getting caught in an expertly woven net.
The characters don't have much motivation for the things they do. An hour or so in, I didn't care what happened to them. The movie makes several joking references to clichés in Hollywood cinema, but doesn't seem that interested in breaking them.