Cop Secret

It’s a beautiful day on the streets of Reykjavík spoiled by another bank robbery with police officers Bússi and Klemenz following the suspect escaping on motorbike and fast approaching the border with neighbouring Garðabær where their jurisdiction ends; Klemenz’ young son strapped into his babyseat in the back of Bússi’s rolling deathtrap, he is reluctant to continue the pursuit, but nor is Bússi willing to cede the arrest to his rival from the neighbouring municipality.

Supercop Bödvar “Bússi” Bödvarsson described as “the toughest cop in town” when profiled by Ísland í dag (Iceland Today), “Iceland’s most eligible bachelor” Hörður Bess has a different approach; where Bússi’s negotiation and interrogation technique is direct and unconventional, shooting hostages and breaking suspect’s fingers to get the results he wants, multi-lingual former model Hörður’s arrest record is as impeccable as his dress sense.

Assigned as partners to break the case, the suave and flexible Hörður wants to understand what is beneath hard-drinking Bússi’s rugged surface and deflections, but with three bank jobs where nothing was apparently taken from the vaults the only lead takes them back to Rikki Ferrari, once signed to the same modelling agency as Hörður before he was hideously burned in an exploding car.

Every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, Cop Secret (Leynilögga, literally the more understated Detective) is directed by Hannes Þór Halldórsson from a script co-written by Nína Pedersen and Sverrir Þór Sverrisson who also plays the bumbling Klemenz, starring Auðunn Blöndal as Bússi and Egill Einarsson as Hörður with Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as the psychopathic mastermind Rikki, unable to control his temper or his crew, and Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir as permanently exasperated police chief Þorgerður.

A mismatched buddy cop action comedy with aspects of Zoolander, Cop Secret plays it far from straight but takes the humour in a different direction, instead presenting all the expectations of a modern action thriller movie, car chases, gunfights, explosions and off-the-book undercover operations while undermining the premise of a genre which is typically built upon the unreformed masculinity of the leads as represented by Bússi.

Following the moves but dancing to a different tune, Cop Secret is unapologetically entertaining, the performances carrying it forwards as it balances the awkward but swiftly evolving relationship of the officers, Bússi needing to accept himself before he can take Hörður as his partner, and the investigation with its counter-intuitive evidence, Rikki scattering false leads among the bodies of the henchmen who failed to laugh at his jokes.

Cop Secret is available on digital platforms now

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