Spies & Glistrup (2013)

Spies & Glistrup is a Danish historical and biographical drama (based on a true story) which premiered in 2013. It is about two of the most eccentric characters in the recent history of Denmark:

** Simon Spies (1921-1984)

** Mogens Glistrup (1926-2008)

Here is some basic information about this drama:

** English title: Sex, Drugs & Taxation

** Director: Christoffer Boe

** Writers: Christoffer Boe and Simon Pasternak

** Language: Danish

** Released on DVD in 2016

** Run time: ca 110 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Pilou Asbæk as Simon Spies – the owner of a travel agency (Spies Rejser)

** Nicolas Bro as Mogens Glistrup – a lawyer

** Jesper Christensen as Judge Bergsøe (a fictional character)

** Jacob Højlev Jørgensen as Jurij Moskvitin (1938-2005) – a piano player, a composer, a philosopher, a reporter, an author

** Kaspar Leisner as Jan Schmidt

** Trine Pallesen as Lene Glistrup – wife of Mogens

Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. Therefore I feel free to mention some of them in this review.

While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here, but the basic story is true.

Simon Spies was the owner of a successful travel agency. His business made him one of the richest men in Denmark. He was involved in several scandals, which were widely publicized, but he did not care about it. His attitude was: bad publicity is better than no publicity!

Mogens Glistrup was a lawyer who specialized in tax laws. He was also the founder of the Progress Party whose major goal was to abolish income tax in Denmark. This party had a huge success during the national elections of 1973.

Spies and Glistrup were among the most notorious and provocative characters in recent Danish history. Their personalities were very different: Spies was outgoing and lived the life of a bachelor, while Glistrup was a nerd who lived a traditional family life with his wife and his children.

But they were friends. And they had been friends since the time when they studied at Copenhagen University and lived in the same student dormitory (Regensen).

The drama begins in 1984: Mogens Glistrup is in prison for violating the tax laws and his old friend Simon Spies has just passed away. Glistrup wants permission to attend the funeral, but this is not allowed.

Now the story jumps back to 1965 when the two friends meet each other for the first time in a long time. From 1965 the story rolls slowly forward until we reach 1984 again.

I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. Therefore I am not going to reveal any details about what happens in this drama. If you wish to know how the two old friends get along and what happens to them during a period of almost two decades you will have to watch the drama all the way to the end.

What do reviewers say about it? On IMDb it has a rating of 66 per cent, which corresponds to 3.3 stars on Amazon.

The Danish website Philm.dk offers five of seven stars, which corresponds to 71 per cent or 3.6 stars on Amazon.

Much of what we see in this drama is true. It is a fascinating idea to cover the history of Denmark from 1965 to 1984 by focusing on the unlikely but true friendship of two eccentric personalities who were well-known to everybody in Denmark at the time.

Some people loved them, some people hated them, and some people loved to hate them!

In some ways the drama is successful. But there are some significant problems:

(1) The two actors who play the leading characters do not look like Spies and Glistrup. Not even after the make-up department has changed their normal appearances.

(2) They do not talk like Spies and Glistrup.

Simon Spies had a very shrill voice which is difficult to imitate. Glistrup was from the island of Bornholm and his strong island accent is difficult to imitate.

Pilou Asbæk tries hard to talk like Spies, but he does not really succeed. Nicolas Bro tries hard to talk like Glistrup, but he does not really succeed, either. None of their performances is really convincing.

(3) We never learn how and why Spies and Glistrup became friends.

I like this drama because it has an important story to tell and I want to give it a good rating, but as you can see, there are some flaws which cannot be ignored; which cannot be overlooked. I have to remove two stars because of these flaws. Therefore I think it deserves a rating of three stars.

PS. The following review written by John DeFore is available online: The Hollywood Reporter, 6 September 2013.

*****

 

 Simon Spies (1921-1984)

*****

Mogens Glistrup (1926-2008)

*****