You can tell a lot about a nation by its heist movies. British capers usually expect us to root for the criminals and possess an anti-authoritarian streak, with cheeky chappy working class heroes striking back at the establishment. American heist thrillers tend to be more moralistic, usually ultimately siding with law and order and portraying the criminals as trigger-happy sociopaths. France's heist movies usually focus on the mechanics of the heist itself, highlighting the ingenuity and professionalism of the men involved.
I'm not sure what The Quiet Ones (the title a reference to unmarked bills) says about Denmark, as it features elements of all three of the aforementioned regional variations. Set during the financial crash of 2008, it features working class men striking against the system, but they have more in common with the ruthless crims of Reservoir Dogs than the loveable cockney rogues of The Italian Job. Like its Gallic cousins, The Quiet Ones focusses heavily on how the heist is pulled off and gives us a quiet and thoughtful anti-hero straight out of a Melville thriller, but the execution of the robbery is a far cry from the studied silence of Rififi or Le Cercle Rouge, employing as much blunt force as brain power.
Director Frederik Louis Hviid's first solo feature (he previously co-directed the gritty John Carpenter-influenced thriller Shorta) is inspired by the true story of a 2008 heist that made history in Denmark due to the record breaking amount of cash that was plundered. As a result it doesn't quite play out as smoothly as a purely fictional crime thriller might, and the ambiguous ending might prove frustrating to some viewers who require everything to be neatly tied up when the credits roll. But its characters are very much of the pulp fiction variety, its two leads falling into the classic templates of the reluctant robber who just wants to make one big score to support his family and the sadistic career criminal who will happily kill anyone who gets in his way.
The latter is Slimani (Reda Kateb), and we're immediately given an example of just how ruthless he is when we witness him execute two armoured car drivers during a botched robbery in Sweden. Meanwhile in Copenhagen we're introduced to two figures on opposite sides of the law, but equally beleaguered. Scar-faced but impossibly handsome and chiselled, Kasper (Gustav Giese) is a promising boxer who hopes success in the ring will allow him to escape his criminal past and provide a good life for his wife and their young daughter. Frustrated security guard Maria (Amanda Collin) desperately wants to be a cop, but while acing the physical side of a police entrance exam, she fluffs an interview by giving a smartass answer to what she views as a dumb question.
Kasper's ambitions of going straight come to an end when his brother-in-law introduces him to Slimani, now in Copenhagen and planning a new operation. Kasper initially agrees to help with the planning but refuses to get involved in the actual heist, but the smirking Slimani knows he'll eventually change his mind. The plan is to raid a cash-handling centre known for its lax security, but when another gang beats them to it Slimani pulls the plug, figuring the building will now be under heavy scrutiny. Kasper doesn't want to give up so easily and comes up with an ambitious but ingenious plan involving blocking Copenhagen's armed SWAT unit from responding by blocking key roads with garbage trucks. To pull it off, Slimani and Kasper will need to assemble a large crew, and when Slimani hires a group of unstable and violent Swedish gangsters, Kasper must now worry not only about whether he can pull off the job, but also if he can prevent anyone from getting killed.
Hviid and writer Anders Frithiof August pull off an impressive balancing act of keeping the drama grounded enough to avoid veering too far from its factual roots while injecting enough dramatic elements to ensure we're involved beyond merely watching the process play out. In Kasper we're given a figure we can root for: even if we don't exactly like him, we can understand his motivations. A punch drunk loser who desperately wants to do something to restore his pride, Kasper becomes obsessed with the idea of proving his worth by making history and stealing more than the rival gang who got there first. During the heist, Kasper puts himself at risk by staying longer than planned to fill a bag with small notes, just in case their worth might prove enough to tip his heist from just another robbery to one that will go down in history.
Slimani on the other hand has no such ambition. He seems inspired purely by the thrill of being a bad man, readily admitting that he expects to ultimately be caught. Through Slimani, the film reminds us that the men who commit crimes like this are far from romantic Robin Hood figures. Slimani seems to enjoy violence, with women often his victims, whether it's the armoured car driver he coldly executes in the opening sequence or his long-suffering girlfriend, whom he almost drowns in her kitchen sink when she dares to question his way of making a living.
Slimani's violent misogyny puts us on edge for Maria. Like Kasper, she has a desperation to prove herself and her stubborn heroic streak will inevitably set her on a confrontational path with the criminals. Of the three key figures, Maria however is the one who feels the least developed, and she exists mostly to throw a late spanner in the works and to provide a mirror of Kasper, reflected literally in a clever late visual reveal.
But as much as its characters, it's the process that keeps us invested here. Though it's far more explosive than the quiet lock-picking of a Melville thriller, revolving chiefly around whether a concrete wall can be knocked down by a JCB, the heist is portrayed in meticulous detail. Even though we know that Kasper aside, these men are the very definition of wrong 'uns, we become victims of cinematic Stockholm syndrome, gasping when it seems something might go wrong.
The ambiguous ending necessitated by its basis in reality leaves us asking whether crime really does pay. Some of these men are left broken and battered, others imprisoned, while others have gotten what they wanted, or at least what they thought they wanted. For those involved that aspired to become underworld legends, the existence of The Quiet Ones means they ultimately succeeded in their goal, but they may not like how they're portrayed.
Directed by: Frederik Louis Hviid
Starring: Gustav Giese, Reda Kateb, Amanda Collin
