Imagine the Three Stooges landing on the island of mad scientist Dr Moreau and you will have some idea of bizarre Danish movie Men & Chicken, which mixes knockabout slapstick violence with surreal drama and hints of horror.
Prepare for outlandish surprises when hare-lipped half-brothers Elias (Hannibal's Mads Mikkelsen here acting the buffoon) and Gabriel (David Dencik, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) discover they have three more, similarly disfigured half-brothers, who share a rundown former sanatorium on a remote island with teeming livestock.
Why do the crazed siblings bash each other with stuffed animals, play furious badminton matches and follow other strange rituals? And what on earth was their geneticist father up to? Writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen’s film is so very odd that it takes a while to get your bearings, but when you do his dark comedy about nature and nurture becomes weirdly compelling and strangely touching.
Certificate 15. Runtime 100 mins. Director Anders Thomas Jensen
Men & Chicken debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on Wednesday 22 February and is available on DVD from Arrow Films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYVlN5hTP0M
