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The Northman, 2022
Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard) is the son of king Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) and queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman). When Amleth's uncle Fjolnir (Claes Bang) murders the king and tries to kill Amleth as well, Amleth flees for his life, swearing vengeance on his uncle. Years later, Amleth has fallen in with another clan, working as a berserker warrior. When his desire for vengeance is reignited, he disguises himself as a slave and, alongside fellow captive Olga (Anna Taylor-Joy), sets out to find and kill his uncle.
My expectations for this film were really high, especially after how much I enjoyed The Lighthouse. While it was solid enough, I didn't like it as much as I hoped and felt as if the film missed several opportunities for a more interesting and unique take on the vengeance plot.
The positives are exactly everything you expect from an Eggers film. It looks great, and there are some really thrilling sequences. The entire movie is a mix of "reality" and overtly magical/supernatural occurrences, often to strong effect. The performances are also solid. Skarsgard is good as a man who has tied himself to a destiny of revenge, no matter the cost. Taylor-Joy is really captivating as a woman who knows her own power and chooses to throw her lot in with Amleth. A range of supporting performances are good and a absolute feast of "Oh, hey! It's _______!". Bjork pops up as a blind seer, Willem Dafoe is the king's jester. Ralph Ineson appears in what basically amounts to a cameo.
The plot developments are all pretty easy to follow, but therein lies the problem with the film.
What happens in The Northman is not just a straightforward story of revenge. Of course it isn't. But the movie introduces several delightful turns and complications, only to shy away from them in favor of something more simple, something that is easier to fit into a narrative. And it's frustrating because so many moments of interesting nuance are introduced, only to be bulldozed over by a more conventional narrative. This lends the movie a degree of predictability and a stark awareness of all the alternate turns that could have been taken. At several points, characters are shown to be complex, only to be taken too far until they lose their complexity.
An enjoyable film, but one that frustrates with what feels like oodles of untapped potential.
The Northman, 2022
Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard) is the son of king Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) and queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman). When Amleth's uncle Fjolnir (Claes Bang) murders the king and tries to kill Amleth as well, Amleth flees for his life, swearing vengeance on his uncle. Years later, Amleth has fallen in with another clan, working as a berserker warrior. When his desire for vengeance is reignited, he disguises himself as a slave and, alongside fellow captive Olga (Anna Taylor-Joy), sets out to find and kill his uncle.
My expectations for this film were really high, especially after how much I enjoyed The Lighthouse. While it was solid enough, I didn't like it as much as I hoped and felt as if the film missed several opportunities for a more interesting and unique take on the vengeance plot.
The positives are exactly everything you expect from an Eggers film. It looks great, and there are some really thrilling sequences. The entire movie is a mix of "reality" and overtly magical/supernatural occurrences, often to strong effect. The performances are also solid. Skarsgard is good as a man who has tied himself to a destiny of revenge, no matter the cost. Taylor-Joy is really captivating as a woman who knows her own power and chooses to throw her lot in with Amleth. A range of supporting performances are good and a absolute feast of "Oh, hey! It's _______!". Bjork pops up as a blind seer, Willem Dafoe is the king's jester. Ralph Ineson appears in what basically amounts to a cameo.
The plot developments are all pretty easy to follow, but therein lies the problem with the film.
What happens in The Northman is not just a straightforward story of revenge. Of course it isn't. But the movie introduces several delightful turns and complications, only to shy away from them in favor of something more simple, something that is easier to fit into a narrative. And it's frustrating because so many moments of interesting nuance are introduced, only to be bulldozed over by a more conventional narrative. This lends the movie a degree of predictability and a stark awareness of all the alternate turns that could have been taken. At several points, characters are shown to be complex, only to be taken too far until they lose their complexity.
An enjoyable film, but one that frustrates with what feels like oodles of untapped potential.