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| Source: Imdb |
This adventure film about a man stranded in the unforgiving
frozen desert that is the Arctic is a singular tour de force. It does what
neither “All is lost” nor “Life of Pi”, both films with a similar plot, could:
it is utterly spell-binding. In fact, I started myself a mug of tea at the
beginning of the film, putting the bag in and planning to take it out 10
minutes into the film. That never happened. When the credits started to roll, I
discovered the mug, long gone cold, with the bag still in it, sitting right by
my hand. This film is so entrancing that I completely forgot all about my
beverage within the first couple of minutes.
Anyway, the
script was magnificent, offering the perfect balance between the monotony of
being stranded in a bleak place like the Arctic, and intense moments of fear,
determination and drama. The dialogue was minimal and much of it was probably
ad-libbed by Mads Mikkelsen in his native language. He was the perfect choice
for this role, making his character’s harrowing journey 100% believable.
Watching him, it was easy to forget that this is all fiction, that the actors
are all ok. He gave an entirely credible, brave, physical, hands-on performance
the likes of which is hard to find, and it was impossible not to feel his pain,
his desperation, hopelessness and determination. Extraordinary work.
The
production side of things was equally impressive. Clearly, they did shoot this
on location in some northern part of the world, amid real ice and snow, not on
a sound stage with rice flakes and crush ice. Even the polar bear was real! This must have been a challenging
production through and through, and the biting wind, the wet and the cold practically
seep through the screen. The chosen colour pallet was simple, but effective:
White, black and red. I only realise now that they were gradually introducing increasing
amounts of green, the colour of hope, the more the character himself looses hope.
Aside from
the excellent directing by Joe Penna - absolutely remarkable for a debut! - and editing, the costume and make-up department did a
magnificent job at keeping things consistent and realistic. To top it all off,
the atmospheric score fit the picture perfectly.
This was a
good one. Shocking, nail-biting, torturous and dramatic up until the very end.
4/5
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