Let's be realistic.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The acting in this movie is really good.

«Flammen og Citronen» is a fantastic portrayal of the danish resistance movement during the II. W.W. In addition to being a great historical portrait, it gives an outstanding insight into the depth of war, especially how war - under any circumstances - is 'a loosing game'. Hate, and hate towards a collectively created, one-dimensional enemy, is maybe the most important component in understanding how some of the nazi-sympathizer where able to carry out some of the most cruel deeds ever known to mankind. Nevertheless, hate blinds also the good man. War and humanity are incompatible sizes. Beautiful cinematograpy and brilliant performances. 9/10

Presumably this was the big one for the Danish, a multi-million dollar production about their own WWII Resistance heroes, so it's possible to forgive the plaudits it gained at home - much in the same way that awful Pearl Harbour film garnered 4 Oscar nominations in America. Sadly, the faint praise for having made the film at all is about as far as I can go, because this is a long, drawn out disappointment.The are many, many problems, the acting and direction constantly clash, as if both searching for one another, hoping to find a narrative harmony that they never actually achieve. If we're watching a cerebral brooding affair, do we really need to see so much brow-sweat and half-shadow? We already know they were stressful times without it being quite so underlined in endless reams of perspiration and artificial unkemptness. This unfortunate disunion isn't helped by wholly one-dimensional and oppressive characterisations. There's no camaraderie, no gallows humour, no attempt show any intellectual bonding, never mind the enemy, comrade sulks at comrade.But the crucial weaknesses are in the incoherence of the double-triple- crossing script, and the unexamined motivations of Flame and Citron to continue killing regardless of the revelations about the intents of their handlers. Rather than heroes who fought through the duplicity and shadiness of war-time collaborators, we are served with what could have been a couple naive tantrum-teens, who apparently believe whatever was the last thing they were told irrespective of anything else and throw one big strop after another when they discover they were lied to yet again.Now I don't know the real story behind the two obviously brave men, but such a portrayal seems like a disservice.

I find this story as powerful as other more well known historically accurate pictures. Schindler's List comes to mind. The two tell similarly obscure stories for an American in an impressive way. What I liked the most about Flame & Citron is its examination of personal mores in a desperate situation, across a diverse collection of individuals and roles. Assassins must weigh God-given moral boundaries against the "all's fair in war" freedom. Controller has to balance his devotion (or lack of it) to the resistance with the need to function openly in occupied Denmark. Informer must balance love for individual, hatred of war/Nazis, and desperate need to survive war. Story was powerfully told; I'd like to see an Eng. language production of the same, with as many performers from original as possible. Mads Mikkelsen's Citronen was particularly strong character. Less known history of WII is still as captivating and moving as ever.

Flame and Citron (2008)An intensely intense film. It has great intentions, and the protagonists go around shooting Danish Nazi types in the head, which was probably a pretty good things to do during the war, at least in movie terms. It's gritty and moody, it has tension and good music and great dramatic filming (the light and the camera-work are both very clean and yet provocative).But this cinematic prowess gets in the way of the movie a little, and the plot is slow enough that you begin to watch the surfaces of things as you go. In fact, some of the scenes (eating around large tables, meeting in broad, gloomy, almost beautiful basements) are just too pretty to support the ugly events at hand. Or so it seems. It's a vivid film, and unique, and it is a must see for World War II film buffs, just because it's so honest and so different. There are not that many Danish films about the war to start with, compared to British and American (and German) efforts. This one is very bloody, and ruthless in both its actions and in the telling of them. Kudos for that, but warnings, too. As pretty as the filming is, it isn't always easy to watch. But that's part of the point, getting to what rises above the mere action--is it okay to kill bad people without a trial, without warning, without knowing even if they are bad at all. What is okay in war? What do we come to justify later, or at the time?