Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas, 2013.
Directed by Arnaud des Pallières.
Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Mélusine Mayance, Delphine Chuillot, David Kross, Bruno Ganz, Denis Lavant and Roxane Duran.
SYNOPSIS:
16th century France: Michael Kohlhaas, a horse dealer and loving father, lives a happy and prosperous life in the peaceful countryside. But when a cruel baron seizes his livelihood and defiles his family’s honour, he takes up arms and sets out on a mission for vengeance that reaches the very top of French nobility.
When you hear a synopsis like that, your mind immediately conjures up images of breathtaking battles and bloody sword fights not dissimilar to films like Gladiator. In the case of Age of Uprising however, we have no such joy as we are left with a much more understated and at times tedious tale of an honourable man looking for revenge.
Effectively, Age of Uprising is Braveheart-lite. They both have a similar story but where Braveheart had passionate characters and epic scale, Age of Uprising has a grouping of people who show no emotion whatsoever, led by a man so stoic you end up assuming he doesn’t care about what he’s doing. We are of course talking about the normally excellent Mads Mikkelsen.
In Age of Uprising, Mikkelsen does his very best to portray an honourable and courageous hero but in all honesty fails miserably to evoke any emotion from his audience other than perhaps complete and utter boredom.
He’s not the only actor who’s at fault though; the entire supporting cast are mere shadows in the background during almost the entirety of the 122 minute running time of this film, and should help to shoulder the blame.
Surprisingly, I don’t think the actors are the main problem with this film – that dubious honour should go to the screenwriter. Every problem that I could find with this film – whether that be the lack of dialogue, poor exposition, inconsequential story decisions or lack of direction – is a direct result of a completely uninspired and turgid script. During this film, I thought often that if the script had have been on par with Mikkelsen’s talent and the fairly simple story, we could have had at least an interesting way to spend a couple of hours. Sadly that was not the case.
All in all, the messy plot and terrible structure of this outing result in a film that has no passion, direction or character and will leave even the most ardent of Mikkelsen fans thinking that every great actor most certainly has an off day.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Ozzy Armstrong is a Stargate and Rocky superfan. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published March 10, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
