A few days ago, I wrote about the first movie in the Department Q series, The Keeper of Lost Causes. Today, I would like to write about the second movie, The Absent One. This is the second of four movies (at the moment), but hopefully, there will be even more movies made in the future!
Just like in the first movie, we follow the detectives' Carl Morck and Assad as they look through old cases in order to "finish the paperwork." But, just like in the first movie, they find an old case with quite a lot of strange things surrounding it. Accompanied by Carl meeting a father who claims to have important clues and who tells Carl to investigate a special case, but then ends up killing himself one day later, makes them dive into a case that originates from a special school.
What is The Absent One about?
Two children (twins) were killed, and a person was caught for the crime. But, something is wrong with it all. Carl and Assad decide to look into the case, and it brings them to a boarding school that hosted quite a lot of important and influential people. While following the investigation, we also meet Kimmie, a girl who went through a lot during her time in the boarding school.
It is hard to write anything about the story without spoiling it all, but there are some surprising and interesting elements to the story.
Is The Absent One worth watching?
If you liked the first movie, I believe you will enjoy this one as well. But, start with the first movie, because there is a kind of chronology to the movies.
To be honest, I liked this movie, but out of the four movies, I consider this to be the "least interesting" together with the third movie, A Conspiracy of Faith. That doesn't make it bad, but not as interesting and good as the first (The Keeper of Lost Causes) and the fourth, Journal 64.
My The Absent One score: 6/10
I am not sure why I didn't enjoy this movie as much as the first and the fourth, but I believe the reason has got to be that I didn't really enjoy the basic plot. It is also important to understand that Carl Morck is quite a depressing character, so you need a lot of action and excitement to create a balance. Maybe that is what was missing in this movie!
No matter what, I still love this series of movies, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone!
You can stream the three first movies on Netflix in the Netherlands, while the fourth movie can only be found on Netflix in Belgium.
Have you seen this movie? Did you enjoy it? I would love to hear your thoughts! It is also interesting to know that this was the highest-grossing movie ever in Denmark during its opening weekend after its release.