EXIT: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
Wealthy businessman Thomas (Mads Mikkelsen) seems to have it all: a beautiful wife, Anna (Kirsty Torhaug), a lovely daughter, Ebba (Johanna Dickson) and an expensive villa by the water. But when his business partner Wilhelm (Börje Ahlstedt ) is found dead at his desk, Thomas is viewed as the one most likely to profit from the murder and he becomes embroiled in a game of cat and mouse he can't possibly win.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
Mads Mikkelsen holds this adaptation together with a powerful anti-hero characterisation even when the complications and machinations of the financial side of the plot overwhelm the audience. It's a tough world, Swedish business, with takeovers and share holdings and partnerships mired in betrayal and swindles. If you ride along with it, there is also a straight forward thriller in the movie, in which one man claiming innocence of a murder fights the baddies and escapes from the law. His wife and toddler daughter (high risk targets with good emotional pay off in drama terms) are pawns and the baddie on the run should have died seven years earlier.

Although the plot is confusing at times about the murders and suicides, there is enough action and chase to satisfy the viewer.

Technically top notch, Exit shows off Swedish genre filmmaking, and the intriguing ending adds a layer of suspense that extends the film's impact.

Published May 15, 2008