There are always decent movies coming from Denmark, however, I don’t remember any of them being so powerful, engaging, and a master of an attention-grabber such as The Keeper of Lost Causes. Right from the beginning there is no way you would sense or hear anything else other than what the film offers you. The suspense in the film is at such top level that as the story unfolds, time will stop for you until the film ends. And if not that, what else can a suspenseful thriller offer?

The movie begins with Carl who finds himself emotionally unstable, sent to long term leave after suffering a severe injury. His difficult personality, stubbornness and unwillingness to co-operate with others sends him to the Department Q, where Carl and Assad are assigned to review and close any cold case within a week. However, having a strong sense for the case, Carl finds the case of Merete, who presumingly dies on a boat, and due to lack of evidence, is ruled as suicide. But once the detective starts looking into the case he realizes he finds the cause of the incident lies far away before the accident occurs, the past that is full of abuse, suffer and condemnation that makes an individual do the unthinkable.

What is truly remarkable about this film is the lighting, dark atmosphere, super execution, and an extreme developing of the story which gives the viewer more hints to keep himself busy while Carl and his colleague, Assad, are trying to figure the cold case out.  As the film progresses, we find our hero in the middle of the conflicts with his colleague, who investigated the disappearance of Merete and goes against the reopening of the case. Even after being dismissed from his duty, Carl continues his search as he believes that he is getting closer to solve it.

There is another component that makes this film as one of the best thrillers made about cold case investigations; with its flash-backs showing you piece by piece, step-by step how Merete looks after her brain-damaged brother, Uffe, until the moment when she disappears. We do see that Uffe always sees someone whose face you never see. But every time it happens it gives you more clues as to what really happened, which is quite terrifying. But that is what makes the viewer keep going throughout the film without losing any attention as everything shown on the silver screen is too important to be missed.

In conclusion, Mikkel Nørgaard’s The Keeper of Lost Causes is a fabulous, gripping movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The story is so captivating that you won’t even want it to end. The performance that the entire cast delivers is convincing, which helps the movie to advance to a different level of a joy that you as a viewer can experience.