The Chestnut Man (2021) Cre: Dorte Warnøe Hagh, David Sandreuter & Mikkel Serup
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As part of a Filmstagram community event, I decided to watch this Danish limited series, created by Dorte Warnøe Hagh, David Sandreuter, and Mikkel Serup. It's based on a book that I read earlier this year, the Scandinavian crime thriller by Søren Sveistrup, who also helped write the series.
Having read the book, my thoughts were less about what would happen, per-se, as much as how faithful the series would be to the text, as well as how well it was executed in a more general sense. Reviews are very solid, which certainly gave me reason to be positive. The series didn't need to do anything different from the book to be successful in my eyes.
The cinematography of the show wasn't bad, by any means, but it definitely didn't stand out. There was nothing about it, from a visual and auditory perspective, that stuck with me. It would've been nice to see something a little more unique, but I can appreciate that the consistency of the camerawork, regardless.
The story may have been familiar to me already, but I still enjoyed seeing it play out in this limited series. I thought that the narrative translated pretty well onto the screen, though, I must admit, the final reveal worked much better in the books, at least for me. The series wasn't able to lay the threads quite as well, although it did do the vast majority of the rest of its storytelling very strongly.
I enjoyed the performance of Danica Ćurčić in the leading role, I thought she depicted her character very accurately. She had an affinity for believability throughout each episode, which helped her in being an empathetic protagonist. I also thought that she had a decent level of on-screen chemistry with pretty much the whole cast, which was really satisfying to watch.
Mikkel Følsgaard lacked a little screen presence at first, but he improved greatly as the series progressed. His showings in the second half of the series were especially good. Følsgaard did a very good job of feeling genuine, particularly in how he reacted to some of the darker events in the show.
Of the supporting cast members, the best performances came from the pair of Iben Dorner and Esben Dalgaard, who were both very consistent in their emotionally driven roles. Meanwhile, there were also solid displays from the likes of David Dencik, Lars Ranthe, and Elliott Crosset Hove, albeit to a smaller degree.
Overall, I was very pleased with how this limited series played out - I thought it did the book justice, for the vast majority of its six episodes. Even for someone who knew what was going to happen, the series felt compelling and well-paced. Nothing felt out of place or rushed, and the two protagonist's came across well. Netflix has announced a second season to release in 2026, which will be interesting - I wonder if it will be based on a second book by Sveistrup. Either way, this was a very watchable series, and it works absolutely fine as a standalone story.
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