JACKPOT

Norway, 2011, 90 minutes, Colour.
Kyrre Hellum, Henrik Mestad.
Directed by Magnus Martens.

A Jo Nesbo story. Sweden and Norway have been producing authors who have achieved world popularity, Stieg Larsson and the Millennium novels, Henning Menkel, with Wallander, and Norway’s Jo Nesbo. The film version of his Headhunters screened recently.

Jackpot is based on a short story and runs for under 90 minutes. It is really a black comedy, ultimately very ironic. Movie buffs may pick up very quickly that Nesbo may have seen and drawn on a very popular American crime thriller of the 1990s.

After a shootout in a sex shop/ strip joint, a survivor is taken into custody and interrogated by the local police. He explains how he came to be there which leads into a long story (full of flashbacks) of how he worked at a factory with former criminals three of whom entered the football pools and won. He had signed for and bought the ticket. The story becomes more and more far-fetched, though all the claims are verified. There are murders, body chopping, corpses rolling from carpets on the top of cars, a body in a solarium…

This is all presented with a deeply sardonic humour and the anticipation of whatever could happen next. Which, eventually, leads back to the shootout. Needless to say, there are some more plot twists, but you might be able to work it out (and the screenplay does suggest clues).

The film versions of the Scandinavian authors tend to be very serious and intense. This film offers the lighter (if not brighter) side of crime.

1. The popularity of Jo Nesbo’s writing, thrillers? Comparisons with the Millennium Trilogy?

2. A Norwegian story, police, homes, factories, the sex shop? The Norwegian countryside, the roads? The woods? The cemetery? The background score, songs?

3. The film as a black comedy, crime and violence?

4. The suggestions of The Usual Suspects? The setting up of the crime, the interrogation, the flashbacks, the final solution?

5. The introduction: the police, the arrest of Svendson? His being alive in the bombing of the club, under the dead woman, his being handcuffed, the interrogation, the techniques?

6. The flashbacks, Svendson’s story? Gina verifying it? The ticket, the head, the pigs?

7. Svendson and his work, in the criminal institute, the introduction to the men, the playing of the pools, the win? The celebration, alcohol? Going to the Pink Heaven? Lasse? The killing of Thor? The blood, the ring, the crash, the head? The police? Chopping up the body? The red trees in the factory, the blood? Billie and Thor? The plot? The cemetery, the joke, the spa, the hammer? The visit of the landlord?

8. Svendson, the buying of the ticket, the girl selling it, collecting it, going to her mother, Lasse and the meal?

9. Police, the security check, Spain, the spa? Svendson and the story? His explanation of going to Pink Heaven?

10. Lasse and the helper, the son, school, security guard? Thor and Svendson? The guns, the shooting? The dancers in the club? The guns, the fat lady?

11. The surveillance tape, the role of the landlord, threats, death, Svendson and the girl?

12. The police inspector, his thorough investigations? His being deceived?

13. The final getaway, Svendson and the girl, the plan, his lies, the fabrication of the stories? The circumstances supporting his stories? Getting more and more farfetched?

14. The irony of the story, the characters, the title, the solution?



1. Jo Nesbo story, his reputation, thrillers? This thriller done in comic and absurdist style?

2. Norway, atmosphere, the film industry, thrillers?

3. The town, near the border with Sweden, the streets, the seedy club? The musical score?

4. The massacre, the dead stripper, the other eight corpses, Oscar underneath, with the gun? His waking up, the police?

5. The Inspector, his assistant, examining the massacre situation, booking into the hotel, preparing for a long investigation? His interrogation of Oscar?

6. The flashbacks, Oscar, the factory, producing Christmas trees, the work with the ex-convicts, their rehabilitation? His relationship with the men?

7. Oscar telling the story, the Inspector, sardonic, his reaction to the seemingly preposterous aspects of the plot?

8. The story of the football pool, the ex-convicts working together, the win? The different characters, interactions, betrayals? The response? Greed, leading to the bloody manoeuvers, the killings? And the massacre – and Oscar’s survival?

9. The revelation of the truth? The reaction of the Inspector?

10. Audience response to the comic aspects, for example manipulating the corpse like a puppet, and to the more serious underlying perspectives?