Review of The Green Butchers (2003) by Paul F — 06 Feb 2005

(I hadn't realized it at the time, but [i]Green Butchers[/i] is directed by Anders Thomas Jenson, who directed one film I'd seen, [i]Mifune[/i], and two others that I've been meaning to check out, [i]The King is Alive[/i] and [i]Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself[/i]. Go figure.).

(Having known this wouldn't have changed my feelings toward wanting to see the film, mind you. I was ambivilent towards[i] Mifune[/i], but figured he had potential.).

(Besides,[i] The[/i] [i]Green Butchers[/i] is a cannibal comedy, and I can't resist a cannibal comedy.).

(Ah, the cannibal comedy. It has a long hist--wait a minute. I've accidentally written my way into starting the review. Hang on.).

Ah, the cannibal comedy. (That's better.) It has a long history, with its' most notable entires being [i]Eating Raoul, Delicatessen[/i] and various adaptations of the Sweeney Todd story. There are, in fact, probably more films that deal with cannibalism as comedy than that deal with it in any sort of real, dramatic context (a la [i]Alive[/i] or[i] Keep the River on Your Right[/i]), though both together are easily outnumbered by the cannibal horror film. It seems that nothing touches the dark humor funnybone than the sight of a human arm going through a meat grinder.

If [i]The Green Butchers[/i] has a predecessor in this genre, it's [i]The Undertaker and His Pals[/i], a poorly-made, grimy, gallows humor-laden grindhouse pic involving a couple of guys that kill people, send them through the meat grinder and serve them in their restaraunt. [i]Green Butchers[/i] strips off the grime for a more realistic feel and changes the restaraunt to a butcher shop, but essentially the story is the same.

Svend and Bjarne are two friends discontented with their current job at a butcher shop. They set out to open their own store, but Svend's sweaty high-strung personality and Bjarne's low-key, dull gallootish one quickly cause friction during the store's opening. When the real estate man is accidentally frozen to death in their meat locker, Svend panicks and chops off his leg, serving it as chicken to his former boss.

As is to be expected of the plot, the meat is a big hit, and pretty soon Svend is "accidentally" locking up much of the supporting cast, much to the chagrin of Bjarne, who has his own problems to deal with. In the middle of starting a relationship with a funeral employee, Bjarne's retarded twin brother comes back to consciousness after a decade-long coma, further complicating matters.

There's a lot of fun to be had in The Green Butchers, and much of it comes from Mads Mikkelson's portrayal of Svend, a constantly-sweating, ever-frenzied ball of neurosis that constantly comes up with the dumbest ideas at the worst possible times. The humor in the sudden cannibalism of the town is actually downplayed, so the film can concentrate more on the bizarro relationships between the characters. It doesn't always work, and some of the relationships aren't exactly rational, but it makes for decent entertainment.

Still, the film lacks something to really bring it to the upper echelon of the cannibal comedy. [i]Delicatessen[/i] has a deranged sense of dystopian surrealism, [i]Eating Raoul[/i] has social satire and even [i]The Undertaker[/i] has a grimy, inept charm that few films can claim. [i]The Green Butchers[/i] is fun, but it somehow lacks a real personality of its' own, making it little more than a passable footnote. Good for a watch, but no masterpiece.