seriouscritic-42569 I'll start at the top admitting I like my detective dramas to be dark, gripping, intelligent and firmly grounded in reality, however bizarre the crime story being told. I don't want superheroes in suits, impervious to beatings and bullets; I don't want ridiculously convoluted mysteries solved by unbelievable coincidence or unearned insights; I don't want villains who are Evil with a capital E, devoid of believable psychology, or even humanity - however twisted their actions might prove. So I am happy to have found the Department Q series! Much better than the majority of Hollywood detective dramas, these are somber, dark, gritty affairs, which are entirely believable without sacrificing suspense or bizarre, original crimes. Particularly in this first entry, they even go out of their way to portray a heinous, sadistic individual (imagine planning to slowly torture a victim for years!) who we are then made to understand, and even sympathize with, in a key sequence that is heartbreaking. You then watch this person for the remainder of the film without the comfortable distancing of a cartoon "Monster". Here the common, almost clichéd, character of the hard drinking "rogue cop" who is so obsessed and dedicated - however brilliant - no one wants to partner with him is treated realistically; those conditions are a result of a flawed personality, not some conceits assigned to an otherwise "likable" character who is usually also charming and funny and simply misunderstood by the two dimensional people around him. But the best characters can be interesting and involving while at the same time being frustrating and easy to dislike if the filmmakers have the courage to present a dimensional human being. And the characters here are three-dimensional. I highly recommend this film unless you're uncomfortable thinking that bad guys are humans too, that delving into the dark exacts a toll and all damaged cops don't smirk and crack one-liners like Bruce Willis selling out.

Fella_shibby I saw this on a rented DVD in 2014. Felt like writing a review before i watch two of its sequels. The plot - After a raid gone wrong that resulted in the death of one of his team and the paralysis of another, a homicide cop Nikolaj Lie Kaas has been kicked to the basement aka Department Q to tie off five years of unresolved cases along with an inexperienced assistant called Faras Faras. They wind up pursuing the case of a high-ranking female politician, a supposed suicide whose body was never found. In short this is Scandinavian Noir. The acting of the two leading detectives is assured and the cinematography is compelling. It is a perfectly adequate crime thriller that will appeal to fans of this genre. The Keeper of Lost Causes is genuinely gripping, even though the direction is fairly standard and the main plot elements are predictable. Fans of The Treatment, Marshland, Memories of murder, Headhunters, Insomnia, True Detectives - S1 will definitely enjoy this.

Tweekums As this Danish drama opens three policemen are preparing to raid a property; they go in and moments later one of them is dead the others seriously injured… one of them permanently crippled. The third Carl Mørck returns to work six months later… he hoped to return to the homicide unit but instead he finds himself heading the new 'Department Q'; it sounds intriguing but it is just a small department that will be dedicated to formally closing various cold cases. He is not expected to do any investigation; just tie up loose ends and declare the cases closed. When he gets there he finds his assistant, Assad, has selected a few possible first cases. The case of a female politician who went missing while on a ferry catches his eye. It is believed that she committed suicide by jumping overboard but the evidence doesn't feel right; she had been travelling with her mentally disabled brother and witnesses suggested that she had been trying to find him just before she disappeared… hardly the behaviour of somebody preparing to kill themselves. Carl and Assad start to look deeper trying to find men she may have been involved with and even going to Sweden to follow a lead. This does not impress his boss. Meanwhile we are shown what actually happened to the woman; she was kidnapped and placed in a hyperbaric chamber by an unknown captor who increases the pressure each year and doesn't talk to her in the intervening time and supplying her needs through a hatch. Ultimately he shows himself and states that the next time she sees him he will kill her… will Carl and Assad unravel the case and get to her in time or is it already too late?.This dark thriller starts well with a shocking opening that serves to show us why our protagonist has been given his non-job in Department Q and also his less than happy demeanour. Nikolaj Lie Kaas does a fine job as Carl Mørck and Fares Fares contrasts nicely as the much happier Assad. The case they undertake is both interesting and disturbing; what happens to kidnap victim Merete Lynggaard is unsettling to say the least; the thought of being kept in total isolation with nothing to do for years his horrifying to consider… and that is before we see how she has to deal with toothache! Sonja Richter does a great job convincing us that her character is really undergoing horrific treatment. The ending does require some suspension of disbelief as Carl and Assad close in on the kidnapper just as his five year plan to torment then kill Merete is coming to a close. We also get one of the oldest clichés of the genre; cops solving the case after they have been suspended from duty. These minor details can be easily forgiven though as the story is so gripping. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Scandi-Noir.These comments are based on watching the film in Danish with English subtitles.

subxerogravity Cause it feels like the beginning of a great police drama, and I found out as I was leaving the theater that I saw this in, that This movie was one in a trilogy called Department Q, and The Keeper of Lost Causes makes me want to see the other two so badly.Carl is one of those types of police detectives who is so driven by finding justice and solving the case that he has isolated all the other hard working but worn out police detectives, and when his last Homicide case ends with both him and his partner getting shoot, he's forced into desk duty in the basement tending to cold cases. The first case he tries to close was a familiar case he feels did not go down the way it's written and needs to be solved. I have to admit, that sometimes when you see a gritty cop drama with one minded police officers like Carl, you tend to get just as annoyed with him as everyone else in the film, but I did not feel that way about Carl. Maybe it was the actor or the fact that it was subtitled, but I like the character from the beginning.I also was a fan of the the supporting actor, his partner Assad. It was the perfect miss match as a young cop tried of his old position and just wants to do something more substantial versus Carl who feels like Department Q is where cops go to wait for retirement.The case in itself was a good one too. Just how the information was laid out was interesting, and easy to follow. Gave a sense that you were solving the case right along with them.The picture also displays the proper mood using very gritty colors and lighting to give a cold case feel.I definitely recommend The Keeper of Lost Causes, it's one of the best police dramas I've seen on the big screen, and I can't wait to see the rest of the Department Q series.