The American remake of the popular Scandinavian drama hits TVs tonight, July 10.
What links the sweltering border of American and Mexico, with the bleak line between Denmark and Sweden? Well, it’s The Bridge – and not just Bridge of the Americas or Øresund Bridge which link up the respective countries, but the drama that incorporates them both.
Diane Kruger at the premiere of The Bridge
FX have taken the Scandinavian version of The Bridge – the original, which appeared on the BBC back in 2011 – and reworked it for an American audience. It follows Demián Bichir and German actress Diane Kruger as the Mexican/American police team charged with tracking and stopping a serial killer with an apparent political motive. The original saw a body over the border of Sweden and Denmark, and featured a similar method by the show’s antagonist – placing half the body in each country so if falls under both of their jurisdictions.
Fans of the Danmarks Radio and Sveriges Television version, featuring Sofia Helin and Kim Bodnia as dynamic duo, Saga and Martin, might approach this remake with caution – and they’d be right to; these remakes rarely prosper, and usually fail to capture the themes of their predecessors. But FX are renown for crime drama – they do it well - and the early reviews suggest this isn’t just cheap reincarnation, but rather a fully fledged drama in its own right. Like Saga, Sonya isn’t immediately likable; she’s rude and unapproachable. And like Martin, Det. Marco Ruiz is a charming presence, whose maverick tendencies don’t stray too far into the cliché.
Bichir's performance has been lauded so far
IGN got their hands on the Pilot, and gave it a fairly favourable review, saying: “The Bridge has tapped into a potentially rich vein, dealing with a politically motivated murder on the border and some promising characters. But whether it can follow through remains to be seen – we’ve been burned by remakes before. For now the good outweighs the bad and I’ll be watching, especially for the marvelous performance turned in by Demian Bichir.”
Robert 'Bob' Mazur is a federal agent who has been assigned the task of going...
After a long stint as a solider, Vincent decided that he's going to make a...
The French don't always get the balance right in their farcical romantic comedies, but they...
Isabelle is madly in love with her boyfriend of ten years Pierre and intends to...
Anyone interested in how movies get made will love this feisty behind-the-scenes documentary, which uses...
While the premise of this sci-fi thriller feels like yet another of Stephenie Meyer's two-boys-one-girl...
Melanie Stryder, once a tenacious and strong young woman, has been infected by an alien...
Slick and pacey, this military thriller feels contrived as it ramps up the drama, but...
When Dr. Martin Harris awakes in a hospital in Berlin after an almost fatal car...
Watch the trailer for Anything For Her.When the police arrive at the house of an...
"War is young men dying and old men talking," bellows one Greek leader following a...
Wicker Park is a remake of a 1996 French film that nobody saw, called L'Appartement....