If ever Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen was to have a muse, it would probably be Mads Mikkelsen, which let’s face it, isn’t a bad one to have.

Although Mikkelsen is no stranger to Hollywood, he regularly returns to his home of Denmark to star in the odd film – with odd often being the appropriate word, particularly where Men & Chicken is concerned – with Jensen more than likely behind the camera.

This film then marks their fifth collaboration, with Mikkelsen appearing in all of Jensen’s features to date.

Serving his country of Denmark abroad in the army is Markus (Mikkelsen). He’s meant to return home but he’s been asked to stay on for a further three months. His wife Emma (Anne Birgitte Lind) has to pass the news onto their teenage daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) who is gutted by the news. In an attempt to cheer her up, her mum tells her that she can take the day off from school and that they can go shopping in town together.

This leads to a chain of events that results with the pair of them being on board a metro that gets involved in an accident, which leads to the death of Emma.

With this tragic news, Markus returns home to be with his daughter, where he is visited by Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a mathematics genius, who also happened to be on the same train as his wife and daughter. He informs Markus that it was no accident, and that it was actually a gang-related hit, which Otto can prove, along with a few of his nerdy chums.

Knowing the truth, Markus is now keen on seeking revenge, and with the unique skills of Otto and his friends provide, the group behind his wife’s death are now very much in his sights.

This Danish feature is a curious beast, with its mix of dark humour and quite violent scenes. Mikkelsen plays the straight man to the nerd herd that ends up helping him; a trio of socially awkward individuals who have some unique skills that can help unlock the truth behind his wife’s death. The three of them provide the quirky humour of the film, along with a Ukrainian sex slave, obviously, that help make the film hugely entertaining.

However it’s difficult to avoid Jensen using the entire film as a metaphor for men’s mental health issues. Mikkelsen’s character is a stereotypical soldier, one who keeps his feelings very much to himself, particularly during a time of personal crisis. Otto and his team represent the need for help that they all believe Markus needs, including the opinion of his daughter. In a sense, everything else is just set dressing, as Jensen regularly chips away at his main protagonist, with the overriding message that it’s good to talk.

Mikkelsen does well as both the straight man with an avenging leaning, and as the foil to the oddballs that are Otto and co, who are proving to be interesting disrupters to his regular life.

Although the film has more than a whiff of Death Wish about it, the inclusion of a bunch of maths geniuses gives it an appealing quirkiness, which adds up to being both absorbing and engaging, and certainly an interesting take on the standard revenge thriller.