Branagh portrays Henning Menkel's obsessed and depressive detective with morose conviction. Instead Wallander feels as if it has been done the other way around, like a typical British TV crime drama transplanted to Sweden. The actors' curiously stilted and accent-less English often grates on the ear and the use of Swedish names and places requires the same suspension of disbelief required to listen to dubbed films. It also makes it difficult for the actors to flesh out their characters or make them entirely believable in a Swedish context.
Much of the time, Branagh and co. simply aren't convincing as police officers, and sound more like a group of Oxbridge academics conducting a research project rather than police engaged in a murder inquiry. The series is also limited in that it has been written too much as a vehicle for Branagh, and the other characters are marginalized to the point when they barely have any individual life at all.
All this is very different from the Swedish original, where even the regular minor characters became important components of the storyline, with tensions and relationships that were were clearly established, and where crimes were solved, not just because of Wallander's moments of individual genius, but through teamwork and collaboration and the gradual accumulation of small details.
And for all his moody, unshaven portrayal of a driven and traumatized detective haunted by his job and his personal demons, Branagh's performance pales in comparison with his Swedish counterpart Krister Henriksson.
Henriksson's Wallander had a complexity, humanity and nobility that is lacking in Branagh's more one-dimensional performance. His strikingly expressive face conveyed the sense of a man constantly saddened and outraged by the unspeakable acts he is forced to witness, and taking consolation in his music, his relationships with women, his dog, and the sea.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/mjm4xs7
Much of the time, Branagh and co. simply aren't convincing as police officers, and sound more like a group of Oxbridge academics conducting a research project rather than police engaged in a murder inquiry. The series is also limited in that it has been written too much as a vehicle for Branagh, and the other characters are marginalized to the point when they barely have any individual life at all.
All this is very different from the Swedish original, where even the regular minor characters became important components of the storyline, with tensions and relationships that were were clearly established, and where crimes were solved, not just because of Wallander's moments of individual genius, but through teamwork and collaboration and the gradual accumulation of small details.
And for all his moody, unshaven portrayal of a driven and traumatized detective haunted by his job and his personal demons, Branagh's performance pales in comparison with his Swedish counterpart Krister Henriksson.
Henriksson's Wallander had a complexity, humanity and nobility that is lacking in Branagh's more one-dimensional performance. His strikingly expressive face conveyed the sense of a man constantly saddened and outraged by the unspeakable acts he is forced to witness, and taking consolation in his music, his relationships with women, his dog, and the sea.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/mjm4xs7