The Middle Man review – Nordic black comedy set in small-town America

Karmack is a US town so unlucky that someone is employed specifically to deliver the daily batches of bad news. The latest “middle man” is Frank (Pål Sverre Hagen), who, it turns out, suffers from his own share of the town’s misfortunes. This English-language feature from Norwegian director Bent Hamer (Kitchen Stories) is infused with a very Nordic tragicomic sensibility. And this, together with a predominantly Scandinavian cast, means that the film feels oddly rootless, never quite persuading as a piece of small-town Americana. Still, it is ruefully entertaining and looks terrific, with a colour palette of sullen blues and ill-natured yellows.