The Absent One

2014

1h 59m

Crime

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

List

92%

12 Reviews

Tomatometer

68%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Detectives race to find a possible witness to a 20-year-old double homicide before the killers get to her.

Read More

Read Less

Watch on Fandango at Home

Premiered Jul 27

Buy Now

Fandango at Home

Prime Video

Rent The Absent One on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

Audience Member

Great acting. A nasty story that you can't look away from.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

What's nice about the Q series is the "whodunnit" aspect is elusive and complicated, but well told. A prep school girl is manipulated in the death of some twins that would ruin some prep boys' futures.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A major problem also in Danish film is the overuse of certain actors, basically the same 10 - 20 people playing a more or less leading role in just about all the films, and in particular those productions that run off with most of the financial support and general expocure. It's also primarily the same directors and producers behind, as if they all have gained some kind of monopoly right to totally dominate the industry. It's not healthy and having done maybe one or two great performances, perhaps few other good ones, doesn't mean it gets very good every time, on the contrary. Most likely there are others who can execute great stuff, but they just don't get the chance. There is also a limit to how credible one becomes, especially for those actors who create their characters with the same face, the same voice and the same damn style of acting for the 20th time around or more, not even trying a makeup effort or another hairstyle. One actor stands out, but his character dies very early on. These people eat just about the whole cake and it's only because of their names have become household, no wonder, since they have been exposed to the extreme. In Danish film they have even imported the same category of Swedish actors, as if to ease on this inflational inbreed, and some of them can't speak Danish fluently. In The Absent One, or Fasandræberne, it takes only about four minutes, with intro, to carry out all the aspects mentioned, with at least four actors of this kind, and it even includes obvious poor acting and a fundamental directing/editing flaw, the latter slightly repeated within just another four minutes. That's all it took to kill this film, and though some young and new faces following seems refreshing, it doesn't get any better, maybe worse, due to less convincing acting. Says something about the casting prosess, and probably the direction. Must be annoying for those who may have created a plot that's not that bad or did a proper job with the screenwriting. Abandoning being critical to people's perfomances only because they have become famous is a both public and professional disease, whether it's in a small environment like the Danish or anywhere else.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

angelo k

Gonna be honest. After reading the book I thought that this film could be an absolute blast. And it wasn't. The plot is NOT the book in any way. Although though you can't reject that they know how to thrill things up and catch one, even if I was really disappointed by its adaption.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

richard i

Much more coherent and tightly plotted than the terrible book on which it is based, and certainly played and produced to an extremely high standard, but still suffers from a credulity issue, with simplistic characterisation which struggles to convince.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Nothing original, but good nontheless.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/21/18

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Mikkel Nørgaard

Director

Fares Fares

Assad

Nikolaj Lie Kaas

Carl Mørck

Pilou Asbæk

Ditlev Pram

David Dencik

Ulrik Dybbøl

Danica Curcic

Kimmie

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

71%

68%

The Keeper of Lost Causes

100%

68%

A Conspiracy of Faith

50%

82%

The Reckoning

17%

16%

Wild Horses

86%

79%

In Order of Disappearance

TRAILER

for In Order of Disappearance

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Michael Rechtshaffen

Los Angeles Times

Another unsavory journey into contemporary Denmark's seamier underbelly.

Jun 23, 2016

Full Review

Ken Jaworowski

New York Times

Mikkel Norgaard, the director, propels the story by smartly sticking to the formula he used in the previous film: hints of menace, gorgeously shadowed shots and long flashbacks.

Jun 16, 2016

Full Review

Noel Murray

AV Club

Although each of the first three films tells a full, discrete story, they work best cumulatively, as the ongoing adventures of one cranky, conscientious cop.

Rated: B+

Jun 16, 2016

Full Review

Kevin Harley

Total Film

Lie Laas' furrowed lead and Nrgaard's taut orchestration of flashback-pumped plotting help flesh out old clichs - at least until the climax takes a glum turn for the overwrought.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 2, 2017

Full Review

MaryAnn Johanson

Flick Filosopher

[A] grim treat, mining suspense and urgency from intensely plotted dual timelines of brutal criminality. A must for fans of rumpled, cynical, bitter detectives.

Apr 15, 2016

Full Review

Gloria Daniels-Moss

HeyUGuys

This compelling sequel makes for a nail biting murder mystery that skilfully presents a relatively clichd story that we have all seen countless times before in a unique manner.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 11, 2016

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Detectives race to find a possible witness to a 20-year-old double homicide before the killers get to her.

Director: Mikkel Nørgaard
Producer: Wolfgang Feindt, Peter Nadermann
Screenwriter: Nikolaj Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg, Jussi Adler-Olsen
Production Co: Zentropa Entertainments
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: Danish
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 10, 2016
Runtime: 1h 59m

Most Popular at Home Now