London Film Festival – Review: Cop Secret (2021)

Cinema has the amazing capacity to throw up some intriguing surprises. Did anyone expect Status Quo to produce an island mystery film for instance?  On the face of it, Cop Secret is a similar surprise, as it’s directed by filmmaker and international Icelandic Goalkeeper Hannes Þór Halldórsson. But not everything is as it seems.

Unlike the Quo example, Hannes Þór Halldórsson is actually a filmmaker first and just happened to also play football internationally for the national team. He has a long history of working on short form projects, including videos for Eurovision and Coca-Cola, so is no newcomer or novelty.

What he’s delivered here is essentially a love letter to 80s and 90s buddy Cop movies, and he hasn’t been shy about using all of the tropes.  From the ‘born to be a cop’ attitude, incessant rule breaking, maverick actions, and the flashy Trans-Am as Cop car, they’re all there.  Quite possibly the only one missing was a key character being about to retire after one last hurrah!

The basic gist of Cop Secret is that Bussi (Auðunn Blöndal) is the city’s greatest Cop, obsessed with waving his gun around and playing by his own rules.   Revered by the department and the press alike, he can pretty much can do whatever he wants.  On a darker note though, he also has a terrible gambling problem, to go along with his alcoholism, which sees him living in a rundown apartment block, and constantly checking various sports results.

Into his world comes a series of elaborate bank heists, which pit him against a master criminal, Rikki Ferrari (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), a sort of amalgam of Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson, who insists on always speaking in weirdly accented English.  He is also pitted, professionally, against arch-rival  Hörður (Egill Einarsson), the Super-Cop from the neighbouring District.  When the threat of the Bank heists reaches fever pitch, alongside a key World Cup qualifier for the National Women’s Football team, the two districts merge and they become partners.  Together they take on Ferrari.

Mixed in with all that is a twist on the standard role of masculinity in this genre, with Bussi struggling to understand his own sexuality.  He also has a failing relationship with his girlfriend (Júlíana Sara Gunnarsdóttir), although she seems much more aware of his issues than he is.  It’s not a new idea, but much like the rest of the film, they commit wholeheartedly to the premise. Sadly, they don’t examine or deal with this twist to the level you would hope and it’s a bit more shallow than it deserves.  In some ways it is also used a bit too cheaply, and for laughs, but it’s an interesting move regardless.

Cop Secret really needs to be taken on its own terms and should be enjoyed mostly as a ‘turn the brain off’ type action movie.  There are plenty of frenetic sequences, car chases and ludicrous gun battles to entertain, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  They even rope a few of the Women’s national team into the spirit of the piece and no one gets too precious. Treating it in a more cerebral way would probably make it a less successful film, as its social commentary isn’t robust enough to withstand it.

What it comes down to is, if you want to be entertained by a knowingly generic Cop movie, then this could be for you.  The comedy is broad, with a few stand out jokes, and the enthusiasm of the cast carries it across the line.  Just don’t expect much subtlety.