Flammen & Citronen 2008

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The film is based on true events: Flame and Citron (both noms de guerre) became national heroes. But it's really a meditation on the nature of heroism, and the quest for purity of purpose. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: It winds its way through a tricky, fact-based plot that's sometimes reminiscent of film noir. At the center is a bewitching femme fatale whose allegiances and motives are less than clear. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Madsen has acknowledged a strong debt to Pierre Melville's 1969 classic Army of Shadows. This one deserves a seat at the same table. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Madsen's action sequences are beautifully choreographed and shot, and the movie is packed with slick shootouts and narrow escapes, but it all lacks a certain oomph. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Madsen makes the most of his budget, and he keeps pulling his camera back for long, visually sumptuous overhead shots. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A deeply involving look at people living permanently on the knife-edge of danger. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Maintains a high level of suspense for more than two hours. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: You can feel the shadow of Steven Spielberg's Munich hovering over Flame & Citron, a Danish drama of resistance fighters in Copenhagen during WWII. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: As directed by Ole Christian Madsen, the thriller features well-choreographed shootouts and assassinations. But the script is too melodramatic and complicated for its own good. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: [An] atypical and moody noir war film. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Flame & Citron, based on the lives of two actual Resistance heroes, is a taut, handsome production -- the most expensive Danish film to date -- and it looks like a film noir, as indeed the costumes, cars, guns and fugitives force it to. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Flame & Citron examines the moral shadings of the Danish resistance during World War II without turning into a revisionist bore. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: To its credit, the film gives full weight to the confusion and ambivalence of war; the struggle for liberation from tyranny rarely looks so dubious. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: While it may not be a smorgasbord of red herrings and red meat, Flame and Citron is often chilling. Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: A satisfying thriller interestingly complicated by its study of character and compromise. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The action scenes are well-staged and the performances are aces. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

David Fear, Time Out: It's hard to argue with such primal filmgoing pleasures, especially once the film introduces notions of how good people lose their morality during wartime. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: It's episodic and lengthy, but on the whole this is a well-sustained and surprisingly understated drama. Read more

Ella Taylor, Village Voice: Of all European nations, Denmark enjoys the nearest thing to a heroic record of resisting the Nazi occupiers -- which adds both poignancy and punch to Ole Christian Madsen's fact-based drama about two posthumously honored Danes. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's fast-paced, stylish and thrilling. But it also raises one tough question. Read more