XL

Take one alcoholic Icelandic MP, Leifur, portrayed by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, who decides to throw one last party before he’s forced into rehab by the Prime Minister, mix in party girls, loads of sex and shoot it through a haze darkly and you have the sum of XL.

The film is frantic and incoherent, something like its protagonist, who is divorced and living with a girl much younger than him.

Doubtless the director thought the style would serve its narrative but it only alienates. Allegedly based on real events, it misses opportunities to be a caustic reflection on the greed is good culture which came crashing down so spectacularly, especially in Iceland, which also had to contend with the ash cloud.

Things are brought to a head spectacularly when Leifur lands in jail after a brawl at an art exhibition. He refuses to accept that his life is a complete mess – and tries to patch things up with his ex-wife and estranged daughter.

Ólafsson puts his lumbering frame (and most other bits of his anatomy) through the paces with gusto but he is ill-served by a script that remains one dimensional.

By the end of it all you are left reeling because basically the film is all over in the first 15 minutes.

In the field of scheming and intrigue in Scandinavian politics, Borgen has nothing to worry about.