PUSHER „Movie review”

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
105 min. / Unrated

CAST
Frank Kim Bodnia
Milo Zlatko Buric
Tonny Mads Mikkelsen
Vic Laura Drasbaek
Radovan Slavko Labovic
Hasse Peter Andersson
Branko anja Bajicic

Pusher, the debut film by Nicola Winding Refn, would go on to become a cult classic and spawn two sequels. PUSHER is a film about Frank (Kim Bodnia) who makes his living hustling drugs on the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark. The movie’s story unfolds during a seven day period that happens to be the worst week in Frank’s life. During this week, Frank is set up by his best friend, Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) to be busted during a drug deal, loses his dope, and goes even further in debt with his supplier, Milo (Zlatko Buric). The rest of the story shows Frank attempting to collect debts from several junkies before Milo unleashes his goons.

PUSHER starts rather slowly, allowing the writer time to paint a detailed picture of Frank and his associates. At first glimpse, Frank seems like a goof off whose only care in life is selling drugs and bumming around with his best friend and associate, Tonny. The first few scenes depict Frank and Tonny making drug deals without complications. Tonny seems like a man whore, using explicit language to describe his sexual triumphs. During a dialogue with Tonny, Frank reveals his self as a complicated character. He tells Tonny he and Vic (Laura Drasbaek) are not a couple, but that he fucks her. Later, he further states to Tonny that he doesn’t have sex with Vic, but she gives him head. Through out the rest of the movie, Frank can not decide how he feels about Vic. At one moment he will treat her like someone he truly cares for, but another moment he will hastlily push her out of his car or call her a whore. Frank and Vic’s relationship represents a deeper side to the movie.

Those who care less about plot development will be happy once Frank runs into trouble with the police because the story picks up its action and never looks back. From this point on, viewers should be enthralled in Frank’s quest to retrieve this dire debt. Fast paced chase scenes are heightened by a hard-driven soundtrack featuring loud, metal bands like WHITE ZOMBIE and other popular bands of the mid-nineties. The violence can be brutal at times, but is never graphic. For example, in one scene a junkie blows his brains out with a sawed-off shotgun. Viewers are not shown his brains exploding in slow motion; instead, they are shown the blood splatter on the wall behind his head.

The dragging action at the beginning and the fact that this movie’s dialogue is all spoken in Danish with English sub titles may prove too difficult for viewers with short attention spans and poor reading skills. The ending of the film also provides a problem. Frank’s problem is never resolved, which leaves viewers in suspense.