Film review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
More Marvel mayhem starring Benedict Cumberbatch
There are some “very funny scenes” in this deadpan Danish comedy about the “world’s worst Viking”, said Cath Clarke in The Guardian. Rasmus Bjerg plays Martin, a middle-class dad having a midlife crisis. He has tried half-marathons and cycling, “but still feels dead inside” – so he tells his wife (The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl) that he’s going to a team-building seminar, and instead sneaks off to the forests of Norway to “play out his Viking fantasies”. Swaddled in a “ridiculous animal-pelt costume”, Martin survives in the wild “for about a week” before robbing food from a petrol station, and befriending an injured drug smuggler (Zaki Youssef), who assumes he is a hard-core renegade. Bjerg is “pitch perfect” as the gormless bumbler who wants to go full Fred Flintstone but “can’t bear to part with his iPhone”. It’s just a shame that Gråbøl (“wearing a rubbish jumper” this time) is given nothing really to do, in the role of Martin’s long-suffering, “wait-behind wife”.
For those who love Vikings, but found “the muscles, machismo and sheer, er, Viking-ness” of last month’s The Northman a bit much, this film should be just the ticket, said Matthew Bond in The Mail on Sunday. Although the plot becomes positively “Tarantino-esque”, it’s a likeable film, “funny and gently moving”. I’m afraid it left me cold, said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman. The film “veers from slapstick buddy movie to grisly violence to sentimental midlife crisis movie”. Director Thomas Daneskov piles on “incident after incident” while neglecting characters development. In the end it feels merely “derivative”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Properties of the week: grand rural residences
The Week Recommends Featuring homes in Wiltshire, Devon, and East Sussex
-
Kiefer / Van Gogh: a 'remarkable double act'
The Week Recommends Visit this 'heroic' and 'absurd' exhibition at the Royal Academy until 26 October
-
Mark Billingham shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The novelist and actor shares works by Mark Lewisohn, John Connolly and Gillian Flynn
-
Heads of State: 'a perfect summer movie'
The Week Recommends John Cena and Idris Elba have odd-couple chemistry as the US president and British prime minister
-
The Red Brigades: a 'fascinating insight' into the 'most feared' extremist group of 1970s Italy
The Week Recommends A 'grimly absorbing' history of the group and their attempts to overthrow the Italian state
-
Jurassic World Rebirth: enjoyable sequel hampered by plot holes
Talking Point The latest dinosaur reboot captures the essence of the original – but leans too heavily on 'CGI-heavy set pieces'
-
Summer in Seattle: Outdoor dining like nowhere else
Feature Featuring a patio with a waterfront view, a beer garden, and more
-
Film reviews: F1: The Movie, 28 Years Later, and Familiar Touch
Feature An aging race car driver gets one last chance, a kid struggles to survive in this '28 Days Later' update, and a woman with dementia adjusts to her new life