The Lørenskog Disappearance review: A decent slow burn that struggles towards the end

The Lørenskog Disappearance follows the story of a billionaire whose wife disappears, leaving the cops to conduct a covert investigation as they face the media and unreliable informants. The mini-series is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

On 31st October 2018, billionaire Tom Hagen’s wife Anne-Elisabeth Hagen is kidnapped from her own house with a ransom note left behind. The kidnappers ask for a whopping nine million euros, which they want to be paid through Monero, a cryptocurrency that can’t be traced.

Believing the kidnappers are still watching every move Tom Hagen makes, the cops secretly work their way. While they start suspecting the husband, the journalists orchestrate their own investigation to get to the truth.

From speculating that Hagen was behind the whole thing as their marriage was failing to a racket being involved in the case, the mystery gets deeper with many theories up for discussion.

Performances

Each and every character gave an evenly-matched decent performance. It’s their character arcs that made them stand out.

Especially for Erlend as his story is the one viewer would connect with. Christian Rubeck got enough screen time to portray his character’s personal life and where he stands as a journalist covering this case.

We also see Henrik Rafaelsen giving his all when his time comes in the third episode as the lawyer who goes all out to prove his client is innocent.

Victoria Ose breaks out as the journalist who wants to put her view on the story.

While these actors and character arcs take a center stage, the same can’t be said for the others though. It seems like they are just their doing their job and they don’t add much emotion to the story.

Positives

The show chronicles the story in a pretty different manner than most of the crime shows out there. Each of the five episodes of the show portrays the mystery from five different perspectives.

These perspectives often clash, leading to some scenes that repeat in other episodes, but this happens only for a few minutes or even seconds.

The show also wastes no time in getting to the main plot point of the show. The opening five minutes establish the ride we are in for. It quickly grabs the viewer’s attention.

Negatives

It struggles in the latter episodes and forgets its focus as we get closer to the finale. The finale especially accompanies some unnecessary long-stretched story-telling that should have been avoided.

These unnecessary tales may bring confusion in a viewer’s mind who might find himself rewinding the episode in order to understand.

It also lacks a satisfactory ending. Although it takes inspiration from a real case that is yet to be solved, the show could have built up a good tension around the mystery that closes the story.

Verdict

It’s a treat for unsolved mystery fans and people who love slow burns. The real-life mystery itself is quite intriguing, which makes the show worth a one-time watch to understand what really went down.

The Lørenskog Disappearance
The Lørenskog Disappearance review: A decent slow burn that struggles towards the end 1

Director: Fredrik Horn Akselsen

Date Created: 2022-09-14 12:30

Editor's Rating:
3.5

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