I saw The Middle Man pitched as the Coen brothers meet David Lynch, which certainly piqued my interest, yet after watching the film it turned out to be much more Coen brothers than Lynch. In fact, I feel that the comparison to the latter is only loosely based on the surreal nature of the film, which appears to be unintentional given the attempt to translate Nordic humour to a Western audience.
The film was made by a Norwegian director and features many Scandinavian cast members, yet was filmed in Canada and set in the USA, in the fictional town of Karmack. The town is very much downtrodden, as demonstrated by the opening shots containing a backdrop of foggy, orange skies. A depressing yet strangely comforting sight, yet that comfort is almost immediately dissipated by the scene of the main character Frank being interviewed for the eponymous job title, almost akin to the flatmate interview scene in Shallow Grave in its awkward framing. Even more awkward is the nature of the job itself: Delivering bad news (mainly about the death of a loved one) to the townspeople. This is made furthermore uncomfortable by the fact that Karmack is one of those towns that are so small that everyone seems to know each other. It has gotten to the point that its occupants have begun to accept how downtrodden it is and that there is little hope.
The American accents feigned by the Scandinavian actors are surprisingly strong, with the overall performances also being solid. The characters being so naive amid such bleak scenes was initially amusing, yet I can’t help but feel the Nordic humour hasn’t translated well. There were definitely a few morbid moments that gave me a chuckle, but I left the film wondering why the comedy didn’t deliver more than that. In fact, two-thirds into the film, it starts to dedicate itself to being an overly miserable drama, which is especially disappointing as while beforehand I didn’t find the film that funny, I could still get behind its awkward ‘anti-comedy’ and engage with the plot. Both that and the emotionally manipulative piano cues that were scattered about the film frustrated me. It got to the point where I became disinterested in the characters, which is a shame as I mentioned the acting is good across the cast, but I, unfortunately, couldn’t get past the blatant miserablism.
The Middle Man is a film I imagine an audience somewhere would enjoy. As negative as I may appear to be, I enjoyed the film up until halfway through. Black comedy is a difficult genre to get right and here it seems the comedy was overlooked in favour of the bleak nature. Perhaps it would indeed have worked better if in the Norwegian language – in English, it did not sit well with me.
The Middle Man is playing in Selected Cinemas Nationwide from Tomorrow
