Varg Veum - Skriften på veggen (2010) User Reviews

Haunted by the past

[magda_butra · 6/10 · 18 January 2018]

Varg quit job as a detective and now works in school. The same school, which "by accident" Torill attends to. Torill is a sister of Eva Beate (Martine Johansen is playing as both sisters), a girl that died few years ago, when Varg was still working in social services. The beginning of Varg's new job coincides with releasing Ulrik "Knife" Sand (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) from prison. Sand claims that he was in jail as an innocent man and he blames Varg for his misery. Knife seeks for revenge on the ex detective and in order to do that he uses Torill and the case of deceased Eva Beate.

So. Varg has got a haircut, has a partner, and, oh dear, changed his SUV for a bicycle, what made him steal a car, when he had to chase a villain. Hamre seems to be used to Varg now, he got rid of his annoying assistant. This piece gives some inside into Varg's past. Now, when he is with Karin (Lene Nystrøm) he wants to settle down, but he cannot help with the need to save people. And this of course puts him and Karin in danger.

Another film which would have suited better on TV

[OJT · 5/10 · 4 October 2010]

I must admit I'm quite impressed about the cinema being almost full on the third day of showing this Varg Veum-film. It's the third I've seen on cinema, but I know there's been quite a few also on DVD, without me watching them.

But I think the script for this movie was too far fetched. Maybe it worked better in the Gunnar Staalesen-book. Quite probably. Actually i find it surprising to say that Lene Nystrøm made the best out of her role, as dis of course Bjørn Floberg as policeman Hamre.

Tragic, too tragic, the story goes on just as the ones I seen before. I can't help it being bored. Too theatrical, and I don't think the pedophilia in this film gives the story enough of a serious treatment. we simply don't believe in it This will be the last Varg Veum film I see, at least in the cinema.

Unbelievable plot...

[resukcs · 1/10 · 6 June 2021]

...and poor writing. This series in general is worth about 8 stars. But this episode was so unwatchable because of the absurdity. A killer is released from prison after 7 years. He then kidnaps the underage sister of the girl that he was accused of killing. He sets up Veum by taking some photos of him and the girl in a compromising position (while he's tied to the bed). Now the killer threatens to blackmail him by releasing the photos if Veum doesn't help him prove his innocence. But wait, he also threatens to kill the underage girl on the phone with Veum while a cop is in the same room with Veum. Does Veum think to put it on speaker so the cop can hear this? No. Does he tell the cop what he was just told? No. Then the killer puts a gun to Veum's head and threatens to shoot him if he doesn't help. And the killer releases the photos anyway. So Veum gets arrested later but the killer doesn't even though he's committed so many crimes to date that he should be on his way back to prison. As I said, the writers must have taken a holiday and given the script assignment to a freshman screenwriting class.

These just get worse and worse!

[qui_j · 3/10 · 6 January 2019]

The newer season is even more tedious than the first season. Varg now looks a little cleaner and not as scruffy and unwashed as in the first season. This episode is so poorly edited that it is impossible to understand how or why things happen. There is little continuity between the scenes, with some scene just randomly inserted for 1-2 seconds. At the end of the movie, the viewer is left totally confused as to how the crime was solved. These movies are really a very poor representation of Scandinavian Noir, a genre in which the Swedes and Danes are much further ahead than the Norwegians.

Really weak entry in the series

[acm-41533 · 1/10 · 28 August 2019]

Two of us were watching and both agreed it was a poor episode. While never a wordy show (or really well acted show), I think there were about 250 words spoken in total. Lots of non-verbal scenes/action. Varg has never been the greatest PI on this series and has frequently done stupid things and got his *ss kicked, but in this one he's a moron in the past and at the time most of the action takes place.

Hard to believe this was based on a book. It must have been 10 pages long if this was all there was to put into a movie.

Frustrated potential

[atrickyone · 4/10 · 11 August 2021]

I agree with the rest of the reviews, so many non sequiturs and unexplained events without coordination. The giveaway is at the end when Varg's detective friend Hamre asks him "So let's see if I got this right" and proceeds to explain (after a fashion) why what happened actually happened. Most of that should have been slipped into the film as the plot unfolded but the script was so lazily organized, it wasn't. I like the series so far but this was a dud.