King's Game

This Danish political/conspiracy thriller about the poisonous (and illegal) lengths politicians will go to to snake their way up the greasy pole is so plausible as to give genuine cause for concern. The excellent Pilmark (from Von Trier’s ‘The Kingdom’) is suberbly frightening as the scruple-free aspirant leader of the Centre Party whom sympathetic new Parliamentary Correspondent Torp (Berthelsen) suspects of being in cahoots with sinister Press Secretary Mikkelson (Peter Schou) in manipulating the events following the car-crash of their leader. Arcel arguably loads the slate somewhat in his good guy/bad guy characterisations and soft-peddles his interest in political critique in favour of thriller conventions as things progress, but he does throw in some interesting reflections on generational conflict and also does keep resolutely on the side of the angels.