Into the Darkness (2020)

Into the Darkness is special because it refuses the easy comfort of clear heroes and villains, instead watching ordinary privilege buckle under extraordinary pressure with the patience and intelligence of great historical drama. Set against the Nazi occupation of Denmark, it turns a family’s elegant life and thriving factory into a moral minefield, where every “practical” choice carries a cost and ideology slips into the everyday almost before anyone notices. Anders Refn’s direction and the finely observed period detail make the world feel lived-in, while Jesper Christensen anchors the film with a performance that’s quietly devastating rather than showy. It’s a measured, talky, morally thorny experience more than a battlefield spectacle, so if you want simple catharsis you may find it heavy—but if you’re drawn to sophisticated storytelling about how collaboration and resistance can divide a home, it’s gripping.

Into the Darkness is clearly aiming for a serious, morally thorny portrait of a well-off Danish family being pulled apart by the Nazi occupation, with the factory owner’s “survival vs. collaboration” dilemma at its core. The problem is it often spells out its themes instead of letting them land naturally, so the drama can feel oddly emotionally flat even when the stakes are huge. The story also juggles so many family threads that it can come off cluttered and disjointed, building momentum only to stop with an abrupt, not-very-satisfying ending. If you like restrained, talky historical dramas and can tolerate a film that’s more earnest than subtle, there’s solid period atmosphere and committed performances here—but if you want tight storytelling and a cathartic payoff, this may waste your time.