Overview
- The Last Viking opened in U.S. theaters and on-demand on May 29, 2026 after a Venice Film Festival screening.
- At the story’s core are two brothers, one recently released from prison and the other living with dissociative identity disorder, a setup that shifts the film from a heist premise into a fraught family drama.
- Critics uniformly single out Mads Mikkelsen’s against-type, highly visible performance as the film’s dominant force and a main reason to see it.
- Reviewers are split over Anders Thomas Jensen’s extreme tonal swings, with some praising the film’s singularity and others saying its sudden, often brutal violence — including scenes critics note harm women disproportionately — clashes with its whimsical elements.
- The film was a commercial hit in Denmark and was shortlisted but not chosen as the country’s Oscars entry, and its simultaneous theatrical and digital release signals a broad commercial approach even as awards prospects look limited.