It may not be quite fair to call it a knockoff, but Michael Kohlhass is really a secondrate Braveheart. However, if it is inferior in many ways its leading actor is not one of them. Mads Mikkelson is just as captivating as he always is and unquestionably the driving force behind any interest you can have in this movie. Like a lot of these types of films that come from across the pond, it leans heavy on authenticity but it's also sedated. It moves through this story but at the slowest pace and it takes nuanced into indiscernible along the way. Everything is done so 'subtly', that's it's a strain to just to keep up with it.
