Brothers Search for Answers in Bizarre Danish Comedy ‘Men & Chicken’

Sandra Miska

Mads Mikkelsen, the Danish actor best known to American audiences for his dramatic roles in the TV series “Hannibal” and the Oscar-nominated film “A Royal Affair,” shows off his oddball side in “Men & Chicken,” a dark comedy from his native country. Mikkelsen plays Elisa, a middle-aged slacker who along with his brother Gabriel (David Dencik), discovers that he was adopted, information they learn from their adopted father’s last will and testament video shortly following his death.

Although Elias is older than his brother, Gabriel is the more responsible of the two, which is made apparent when he visits his dying father while Elias is on a date; he has dinner with a wheelchair-bound psychologist whom he only asked out to receive free therapy. Like his brother, Gabriel doesn’t have much to offer in the looks department, but he’s been able to have had a few girlfriends and has managed to carve out a decent life for himself as a philosophy professor. Conversely, the only action Elias gets is from his hand, and he regularly excuses himself to take care of business.

After watching their father’s video, Gabriel does a quick internet search that reveals information about their biological father. A scientist, he resides on the island of Ork – population 41. The brothers make their way to the small town and once they arrive at their father’s house they come face to face with their half-brothers, Josef (Nicolas Bro), Gregor (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and Franz (Søren Malling), all of whom have a cleft lip like Elias and Gabriel. The family reunion quickly turns into a brawl. (The brothers regularly bludgeon one another with objects like stuffed birds and the like, something that becomes repetitive).

Gaining entrance into their father’s house turns out to be half the battle as he is supposedly upstairs convalescing and cannot be disturbed. All five of the brothers’ mothers allegedly died in childbirth, something Gabriel has a hard time believing. The three younger brothers seem to suffer from arrested development, having been raised in this dilapidated house filled with various livestock. The boys are forbidden by their father from entering his basement work area and punishment involves being locked in a cage in the front yard, a penalty they receive even as adults.

While curiosity gets the best of Gabriel and he does some snooping, Elias gets sucked into his younger brothers’ crazy world. Although he initially resists identifying with the bunch of misfits, especially after Gregor admits to having sex with chickens for “practice,” Elias finds himself empathizing with his brothers and even agrees to help them get girls, a mission that leads to a hilarious scene in a local nursing home.

All of the comedy and weirdness leads to a dark discovery about the brothers’ true parentage, an ending that the viewer won’t soon forget. “Men & Chicken” is an entertaining film that examines an isolated community and has a good message about brotherhood. It is a great choice for anyone who digs absurd comedy and doesn’t mind subtitles.

“Men & Chicken” was written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, the Danish filmmaker who took home the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2011 for his film “In a Better World.”

“Men & Chicken” opens in Los Angeles and New York on April 22. It can be seen in Los Angeles at the Nuart Theatre.