Captivating movie !

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Flame & Citron is a Danish drama detailing the true story of the Danish resistance during World War II. Its themes really deal with how war cannot only destroy lives but that also it can create monsters from seemingly well meaning people and that has a direct affect on one's views and on their family too. Flame & Citron is all about real life resistance members Flame and Citron or better known as Bent (Flame) and Jørgen (Citron) who together carried out assassinations on Nazi's in Denmark and through doing so created quite a notorious reputation and also a hefty bounty on their heads. The film weaves nicely through the story and never lets go or slows down so much you get bored, it is however pretty long and parts can feel a little dull but altogether the movie is a good one.Mads Mikkelsen stands out from the cast to a wider audience outside Denmark and the well known "sweaty" actor plays Jørgen, a man torn between doing what he see's is right but also trying to feed his wife and daughter of which he is becoming increasingly distant from. We then have Thure Lindhart as Bent who is just as committed to the cause as Jørgen, although the man is definitely more ruthless and can kill much easier. Both actors do a fine job but for me it is Lindhart who stands out, he seems confident in his role and really takes it upon himself well mixing that ruthless side with a more emotional side too.Ole Christian Madsen is the director on this film and he does a pretty neat job, he manages to make this powerful but not so much that you feel this is just begging for awards, Madsen makes this feel gritty but also thrilling when it wants to be. The script can be a little shaky in parts where really the acting can suffer, I didn't care too much for any of the off shoots this story develops where the resistance storyline is put on hold for a little while. One unnecessary off shoot is really the whole plot surrounding Bent and Ketty Selmer (Stine Stengade), a lady whose mysterious arrival in a bar frequented by Bent and associates is seen as suspicious from Bent's point of view.The movie is maybe not for all I mean this is not exactly a movie that is going to give you roses, it stays dark throughout but that is really what makes this stand out more. The pace of the movie is nicely done too mixing fast scenes where maybe a killing is done with scenes of true dramatic dialogue that is important to understanding the plot. A scene which for me really stands out is one with Bent and a German officer he pays a visit to, the scene is full of smart dialogue between the two and some things said are very nicely written and this scene is one that makes up just a little for the script I talked about a little before.So overall Flame & Citron is a movie I would recommend, for those who maybe want a lot of action then maybe give this a miss but it can't be said this lacks in exciting and thrilling scenes. This is a big film for Danish cinema, a film industry very much not looked at much from a worldwide point of view, but Flame & Citron manages to make not only a movie that is a good little piece of work and shows off Danish cinema, but it also shows us the history of the country in WW2, and what problems they had that drove them to resist.

Danish screenwriter and director Ole Christian Madsen's fifth feature film which he co-wrote with screenwriter Lars K. Andersen, is based on real events. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, in the Shows section at the 35th Telluride Film Festival in 2008 and is a Denmark-Germany-Norway-Czech Republic-Sweden co-production which was shot on location in Denmark, Czech Republic and Germany and produced by producer Lars Bredo Rahbek. It tells the story about a 23-year-old man named Bent aka "Flammen" who lives with a married couple and a 33-year-old man named Jørgen aka "Citronen" who lives with his wife Bodil and their daughter Anne in Copenhagen, who carries out illegal operations for a police attorney named Aksel Winther.Distinctly and engagingly directed by Danish filmmaker Ole Christian Madsen, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated by and mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a moving portrayal of two members of the Danish resistance movement and their dedicated fight against Danish informants and Nazis. While notable for its naturalistic milieu depictions, sterling production design by Danish production designer Jette Lehmann, cinematography by Danish cinematographer Jørgen Johansson, costume design by Danish costume designer Manon Rasmussen, fine make-up by make-up artists Sabine Schumann and Jens Bartram and use of sound, this character-driven, narrative-driven and historic story depicts some dense studies of character and contains a good score by Danish composer Karsten Fundal.This somewhat romantic and somewhat biographical neo-noir which is set during World War II and the German occupation of Denmark in the mid-1940s, centers on some of the many sabotage operations that was executed by two of the most prominent resistance fighters in the Holger Danske group and is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, subtle character development, mysterious characters and the brilliant acting performances by Danish actors Thure Lindhardt, Mads Mikkelsen and Danish actress Stine Stengade. A consistently involving and memorable narrative feature which gained, among several other awards, the Bodil Award by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics for Best Cinematography Jørgen Johansson at the 62nd Bodil Awards in 2009.

Presumably this was the big one for the Danish, a multi-million dollar production about their own WWII Resistance heroes, so it's possible to forgive the plaudits it gained at home - much in the same way that awful Pearl Harbour film garnered 4 Oscar nominations in America. Sadly, the faint praise for having made the film at all is about as far as I can go, because this is a long, drawn out disappointment.The are many, many problems, the acting and direction constantly clash, as if both searching for one another, hoping to find a narrative harmony that they never actually achieve. If we're watching a cerebral brooding affair, do we really need to see so much brow-sweat and half-shadow? We already know they were stressful times without it being quite so underlined in endless reams of perspiration and artificial unkemptness. This unfortunate disunion isn't helped by wholly one-dimensional and oppressive characterisations. There's no camaraderie, no gallows humour, no attempt show any intellectual bonding, never mind the enemy, comrade sulks at comrade.But the crucial weaknesses are in the incoherence of the double-triple- crossing script, and the unexamined motivations of Flame and Citron to continue killing regardless of the revelations about the intents of their handlers. Rather than heroes who fought through the duplicity and shadiness of war-time collaborators, we are served with what could have been a couple naive tantrum-teens, who apparently believe whatever was the last thing they were told irrespective of anything else and throw one big strop after another when they discover they were lied to yet again.Now I don't know the real story behind the two obviously brave men, but such a portrayal seems like a disservice.

Uncompromising filmmaking that puts to shame big budget American-made World War Two movies, FLAME AND CITRON delves into the sometimes unglamorous side of wartime intrigue by focusing on two heretofore unsung heroes. Their tactics are understandably brutal: "Hate seduces you into doing things you never thought yourself capable of." Personal relationships become suspect. "We have to move on," Citron is told just after learning of his wife's infidelity; and it's all part of the TRUE cost of waging war. The best line in the movie is one of the most telling: "I don't think there is an 'after.'" Outstanding filmmaking deserving of a look.