The Keeper of Lost Causes (Denmark)

After a raid gone sideways leaves his partner paralyzed and another cop dead, perpetually glum detective Carl Mørck finds himself relegated to a desk job combing through cold cases with an unwanted assistant. (The latter’s played with infinite patience and subtle humour by Zero Dark Thirty’s Fares Fares.)

Carl becomes consumed by the case of a prominent woman who disappeared five years before. It was ruled a suicide, but Carl isn’t so sure. The fact that the only witness is the woman’s brain-damaged and barely communicative brother doesn’t make his job any easier. Director Mikkel Nørgaard is a TV vet, and if The Keeper of Lost Causes plays out like a police procedural, at least it’s a good one.

The climax is ultimately predictable, but Nørgaard and writer Nikolaj Arcel (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) do manage to ratchet up some tension in the final third.

Friday at the Cinematheque (November 27).