The Biggest Heroes

A Danish road film. Peter and Kalle have just come out of prison. There is no money and the plan is simple: rob a jeweller, split the takings and go their separate ways. The robbery does not go as planned. While running they come across a girl on the road. Maria is fifteen and has left home; she gets into the car and will not get out. From there the film is about the journey of the three. They head north; filling stations, motels, stolen cars and the police behind them. The girl has her own business: she is looking for her father and has the address. The two want to be rid of her at first. Then things change and an odd relation of responsibility forms among the three. What the film is interested in is not the robbery but two men who cannot do anything right and still feel responsible for a child. The register sits between comedy and drama; the narrative grants nobody the standing of a hero, and the title itself is a joke. It is Thomas Vinterberg's first feature. He made far better known films a few years later, and the hand-held camera here points towards that period. Thomas Bo Larsen, Ulrich Thomsen and Mia Maria Back are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone interested in Scandinavian road films and Vinterberg's beginnings. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a tight crime narrative; the film uses the robbery as a pretext and the tension is low.