Stellan Skarsgård stars as the chief money-launderer for the Russia Mob in Our Kind of Traitor, and Skarsgård completely dominates the movie with his always robust and often hilarious performance. Who knew that the familiar Skarsgård could be so funny? After all, he usually plays a character that is brooding or menacing.
Skarsgård had already amassed over 50 screen credits at age 35 when the American art house audience really noticed him in Breaking the Waves (1996), He played an amiable and lusty seafarer who transforms the mousy Emily Watson with his joie de vivre, before he becomes a heartbreakingly suicidal paraplegic.
Although I hadn’t remembered him, earlier, Skarsgård appeared in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), where he played The Engineer who had a one-night stand with Juliette Binoche’s Tereza. Then, in 1990, he played the Russian sub captain in The Hunt for Red October.
After Breaking the Waves came Insomnia, Good Will Hunting, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and lots of really bad Hollywood movies where he’s the best thing in them – primarily dramas, thrillers and action films where he’s the intensely stolid or sinister presence.
Now, everybody’s got to start somewhere, and in 1973, Stellan Skarsgård’s second year making feature films, he starred in a cult Guilty Pleasure – Anita: Swedish Nymphet. As the title suggests, the story is about a 16-year-old girl (played by a 23-year-old actress) with psychological issues which compel her to have sex in random and unhealthy encounters. It’s completely trashy, but, of course, the appeal of Anita: Swedish Nymphet to US (male) audiences was lots of nudity and sex – still uncommon in American movies.
Skarsgård plays Anita’s counselor, who eventually cures her by making her his girlfriend.
But now’s the time to enjoy Skarsgård in Our Kind of Traitor, It’s not a great movie, but Skarsgård makes it damn entertaining. By himself, he’s worth the price of a ticket.
