The job of a director is to somehow direct actors. If you take good actors and a script that is mostly about action, they won't need much direction. But before the shoot the director has to think his story through, think about the pacing and how the plot comes together. That is this hard work that differentiates the clueless director - just happy to toy with a moving camera and shooting angles - from the good one.
Mannen på taket starts unnecessarily slow. The introduction takes only 6min but nothing happens until the last couple of seconds. It builds up nothing, we get almost no information about what it is all about. Then we get the exposition that will take us in a full circle along with some four police officers (their private lives, their connection to the case) for the next 60min. Ok we get an idea of who the victim was (I would not go so far as to say it is a clear picture) and at the 66min mark they start exploring their sole lead, which happens to solve the case.
Except now they must stop the guy. And you are already guessing what will happen since you've been waiting so long for A Man on the Roof. So last act is about a very clumsy police operation. Who wrote this? It is based on a book so they had the time to envision how it could be suspenseful? 40min of hapless cops improvising the most harebrained schemes to get the perpetrator. And some reviewers here dare rank this as the pinnacle of action sequences? Yippee ki-yay.
Apart from the cast the only other high mark is that there is no epilogue, fortunately having nothing to tack there at the resolution of uninteresting random action. So little for a 110min long movie.
Mannen på taket starts unnecessarily slow. The introduction takes only 6min but nothing happens until the last couple of seconds. It builds up nothing, we get almost no information about what it is all about. Then we get the exposition that will take us in a full circle along with some four police officers (their private lives, their connection to the case) for the next 60min. Ok we get an idea of who the victim was (I would not go so far as to say it is a clear picture) and at the 66min mark they start exploring their sole lead, which happens to solve the case.
Except now they must stop the guy. And you are already guessing what will happen since you've been waiting so long for A Man on the Roof. So last act is about a very clumsy police operation. Who wrote this? It is based on a book so they had the time to envision how it could be suspenseful? 40min of hapless cops improvising the most harebrained schemes to get the perpetrator. And some reviewers here dare rank this as the pinnacle of action sequences? Yippee ki-yay.
Apart from the cast the only other high mark is that there is no epilogue, fortunately having nothing to tack there at the resolution of uninteresting random action. So little for a 110min long movie.