Flame & Citron

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

Though the material might lend itself to heavy-handedness, director Ole Christian Madsen is steady, and he gets fine performances from the two leads and Stengade.

The Hollywood Reporter Erica Abeel

This searing, stylish account of World War II heroism from Denmark's Ole Christian Madsen avoids period realism, conveying the story of two heroes of the Danish resistance as a noir thriller, complete with shadowy alleys, double-crosses galore and the requisite femme fatale.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

A pretty good example of the kind of movie Hollywood used to turn out by the yard.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A deeply involving look at people living permanently on the knife-edge of danger, Flame & Citron does more than radically rethink the World War II resistance drama. Its biggest accomplishment may be to make these historical conflicts and dilemmas seem surprisingly contemporary.

Variety Todd McCarthy

An absorbing, shades-of-gray look at home-front intrigue in Nazi-occupied Denmark during World War II. Ole Christian Madsen’s accomplished fourth feature plays out on a much larger canvas than he’s used previously and offers nuance and ambiguity in equal measure with violence and tragedy.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Flame & Citron is the film that the horribly overrated "Black Book" could have been, had Paul Verhoeven not indulged in the puerile reversals of sensitive Nazis and treacherous partisans.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A drop-dead gorgeous period noir, rife with paranoia, femmes fatales, and good men inexorably sinking into the bloody mire and opaque texture of life (and death) during wartime.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," Flame and Citron is the story of handsome rogues with guns. It's fast-paced, stylish and thrilling.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Director Ole Christian Madsen combines sharp scenes of moral inquiry with a few too many functional, oldfangled espionage twists.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

One of the most expensive Danish movies ever made, and at times, it's glossy to a fault.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A taut, handsome production -- the most expensive Danish film to date -- and it looks like a film noir, as indeed the costumes, cars, guns and fugitives force it to.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kate Taylor

A satisfying thriller interestingly complicated by its study of character and compromise.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Through a fluke of release-schedule timing, it arrives as the anti-“Inglourious Basterds’’ - a story about heroic Nazi-killers in which heroism itself sinks under bewildering crosscurrents of motive and uncertainty.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The movie often feels more like film noir than a war picture both in the way it is shot and in the manner in which the characters are handled.

Philadelphia Inquirer Tirdad Derakhshani

With its moody, noir lighting and poetic voice-over, Flame rehearses virtually every element of the classic genre piece: violence, sex and romance, gunplay, spies, betrayals, a femme fatale, and a murderous Gestapo officer.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

If you're looking for an action thriller, this isn't it. The pace is deliberate, the tone is pensive, albeit punctuated by occasional violence, and the style is exceedingly lean; characters reveal themselves mainly through moral choices.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

What Flame & Citron has are decent men taking down Nazis (always a crowd pleaser) and some appealing actors — notably Mr. Lindhardt, Mr. Mikkelsen and Christian Berkel as the head of the Copenhagen Gestapo.

NPR Mark Jenkins

The movie's storytelling can be as old-fashioned as its appearance. Some sequences are quick and messy, but others are grand and theatrical.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

While it may not be a smorgasbord of red herrings and red meat, Flame and Citron is often chilling.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

As directed by Ole Christian Madsen, the thriller features well-choreographed shootouts and assassinations. But the script is too melodramatic and complicated for its own good.