Annecy Review: Kids might enjoy Dante's rickety crime caper

Helge is a devoted worker at the local bank. Maybe a bit too devoted. He doesn't have much else going on in his life. He lives for his work, and in light of one of the bank's trio of managers retiring, he's hoping to get the call the the big leagues. A promotion would mean moving upstairs, working in close conjunction with the other two managers, and maybe even being able to call them friends. Helge is a true tool of capitalism, hoping to find his social fulfillment within the capitalist machine.

And while he gets the promotion, things get off to a very rocky start. After falling asleep at his new desk on his first night, Helge awakens to a horrible scene: the vault has been opened, and ten million dollars have gone missing from within. As only he and the other managers know where the vault's key is kept, and he's the newbie, and he was literally there overnight, Helge becomes the prime suspect. So he does what any normal person would do: goes on the run, teams up with a talking rat, and sets out to prove his innocence. The usual "falsely accused" playbook.

Dante, directed by Ape Star helmer Linda Hambåck and adapted from Frida Nilsson's book Me and Dante at the Dump, is a charming crime caper that feels bit threadbare, but is a decent time nonetheless. It definitely skews younger, and you can feel the film's literary inspiration, both in that it feels like there's not quite enough narrative to fill even its brief runtime, and in the general simplicity of the affair. These aren't necessary knocks against the film, but rather it just means that I didn't necessarily get as much out of it as a kid might. And there should be movies like this, that are aiming to please a specific demographic rather than going for a blithe general audience bit of nothing. 

And Dante is certainly a nice reprieve from the over-energetic chaos that some children's entertainment veers toward. This is a story told with gentle pacing and a subtle sense of humor. It's not cracking huge jokes or taking wild narrative turns, though there's certainly some silliness and surprises along the way. The film almost feels more like an into to crime movies for kids, teaching them how an investigation might work, how characters go about eliminating suspects, why someone might commit a crime. In that sense, it's a fun little watch, particularly because Dante (the talking rat, voiced wonderfully by Stellan Skarsgård) is the brains of the operation.

The character of Dante is the key to the this movie working as well as it does, because he's such an unexpected presence. The film starts off with Helge going to work (with his young neighbor Ella shadowing him), getting the promotion, and discovering the theft: all very normal, grounded affairs. But once he meets Dante, it throws a wrench into our understanding of the world and its characters. Helge doesn't even seem that shocked to meet a talking rat, and Dante has business dealings with other humans. Helge is suspected in the crime, and likewise Dante is assumed to be a thief just because of his species. But he's always honest in his work, coming by the things he trades in honestly. By night, Dante watches crime shows: thus, he's the perfect partner for Helge as he tries to figure out who actually stole the money.

While the mystery isn't particularly meaty (I guessed immediately who did it), it's fun to watch as additional wrinkles crop up, and see how the characters pare down their suspect list. There's a scene where Dante dons a disguise that's very fun. There are some fart jokes for good measure, and an odd Greek chorus in the form of a pair of pigeons, who pop up once in a while for no apparent reason. I never figured out why they were interested in Helge's predicament, and they don't add anything to the movie. They're perhaps emblematic of my experience of watching Dante as a whole: there's nothing offensively bad here, but it also all feels a bit cobbled together and shabby, like there isn't a strong reason for this story to be told.