De Grønne Slagtere (Anders Thomas Jensen, 2003)

The second feature from prolific screenwriter Jensen, The Green Butchers presents Mads Mikkelsen - who else?- and Nikolaj Lie Kaas as butchers who, suffering under the yoke of the town's master sausage-maker, set up shop on their own and find the going tough until a stroke of fortune lands them with the missing ingredient in the recipe for success. Unfortunately, that ingredient happens to be human flesh, and events predictably spiral out of control.
Jensen's film doesn't really rise from black comedy to the level of satire; there's no attempt to link the pals' predicament to social critique, for instance. Neither is the central conceit new: never mind Delicatessen, there was already Sweeney Todd, amongst others in between. But it is punchily written, with the novelty of somehow still keeping our sympathies with the hapless duo. The casting helps: Mikkelsen in particular is routinely excellent and somehow manages to turn his aspirational and anal murderer into a pitiable victim of circumstance.

6/10