“Luther” immerses Elba in movie-style ordeal

Maybe they should have made Idris Elba the new James Bond, as some people suggested.
It would have been the kinder, gentler approach. Bond faces the occasional shooting, beating, bombing and such; still, none of that is as fierce as Elba endures in “Luther: The Fallen Sun,” a movie (shown here) that has just arrived on Netflix.
Elba was mostly unknown in the U.S. in 2010, when he began playing John Luther in the British cop show. Over the next nine years, he did five seasons, totaling only 21 episodes. “Luther” brought him four of his five Emmy nominations and propelled him to movie stardom and to mention as a possibility to become the first Black Bond.
Now, after a four-year gap, he’s back in the role. That’s only for this one movie, but it’s a doozy – two hours and nine minutes of almost non-stop action, the huge kind you expect in movie theaters.
It is also terribly nasty, even by “Luther” standards. The trouble with shows about catching torturers is that they have torture scenes. Be prepared for some awful moments.
Andy Serkis – better-known for characters who are good-spirited (Alfred in “The Batman”) or costumed (“Lord of the Rings” and “Planet of the Apes” movies ), plays a master manipulator. He gets other people to do awful things.
He also speeds up the process of sending Luther to prison for the rules he’s bent and laws he’s broken.
A few other key people show up. There’s Dermot Crowley as Luther’s old boss, Schenk, and Cynthia Erivo as Schenk’s replacement. But mostly, this is Luther chasing villain, while cops chase both.
Along the way, there are movie-scale action scenes. A jail break is spectacular (albeit wildly unbelievable) …. A chase – across Picadilly Square and then into the subway tunnels – is amazing … And then, somehow, this turns into what film buffs call “Nordic noir.”
Those are the bleak mysteries set against somber Scandinavian settings. “Luther: The Fallen Sun” does it brilliantly … and wretchedly, piling one horror upon another.
Let’s give this guy a break and a Bond. He needs to have an easier time.