Cop Secret [Leynilögga] **½ (2021, Auðunn Blöndal, Egill Einarsson, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir) – Movie Review

The crazily quirky 2021 Icelandic gay action comedy film Cop Secret [Leynilögga] is directed by footballer Hannes Þór Halldórsson from his screenplay with Nína Pedersen and Sverrir Þór Sverrisson, based on a fake movie trailer made for a TV show in 2011.

The film stars Auðunn Blöndal, Egill Einarsson, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson and Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir.

Cop Secret plays partly as an action comedy, partly as a coming-out film, and partly like a spoof of Die Hard, even mentioning that its plot twist is like the one in Die Hard 3 It is certainly entertaining enough, actually quite fun and funny, and sometimes quite exciting.

Auðunn Blöndal stars as Bússi, the toughest cop in Iceland’s capital and largest city of Reykjavík. He mistreats his long-term girlfriend (not to mention his cop partner) and is in denial of his homosexuality. One day, on a car chase, he breaks the rules and ventures outside the Reykjavík city boundary, and soon he very reluctantly falls in love with his new partner Hörður (Egill Einarsson), a former model and self-styled toughest cop in Iceland. The apparently mismatched duo are put together by their no-nonsense female boss to investigate a string of bank robberies where nothing seems to have been stolen.

Naturally, Bússi is not a good role model. He’s a violent, messed-up man. Hörður is not exactly a good role model either. He’s a violent, messed-up man but at least has got his act together. Well, after all, he is a former model. Bússi is hitting middle age and still anxious that he might be gay. Hörður says: ‘This is 2021, nobody gives a fuck.’ It’s a nice line, and if only it were true. Cop Secret has a lot of guns, a lot of shooting and killing, and a fair amount of nasty sadistic violence, played for fun. It is a bit left of field as a gay movie in a gay film festival, but, the again, hey, why not? Maybe we could call it a guilty pleasure.

In his directional debut, Halldórsson turns in a very slick, confident film. It is always extremely lively and there is never a dull moment. The two lead actors grow on you after a while, though Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as ridiculous super-villain Rikki is a bit of a pain, yet even so not he is too bad after all, and of course you have his inevitable climatic demise to look forward to.

The cast are Auðunn Blöndal as Bússi, Egill Einarsson as Hörður, Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir as Þorgerður, Vivian Ólafsdóttir as Stefanía, Sverrir Þór Sverrisson as Klemenz, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as Rikki, Júlíana Sara Gunnarsdóttir as Lilja, Gunnar Hansson as Softý, Jón Gnarr as Jón Gnarr, Rúrik Gíslason, Bríet, Jón Jónsson, and Guðmundur Benediktsson as himself.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Movie Review

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