As we start feeling a little warmer, dusting off the BBQ and jet washing the decking getting ready for Summer – along comes Arctic, a film to make you feel both lonely and utterly freezing.
Mads Mikkelsen is Overgard, and we meet him after he has crashed a light aircraft into the middle of the Arctic. He is stranded, trying to work out both how to survive (luckily he seems a pretty good fisherman), how to attract attention from humans whilst avoiding attention from polar bears but ultimately how to find help.
HELEN SLOAN SMPSP
He thinks help has arrived when he’s spotted by a helicopter, but that mission goes disastrously wrong and he is left to try and save the life of it’s surviving passenger (Maria Thelma Smaradottir).
With his mission now doubly difficult, ‘Arctic’ is the epitome of an uphill struggle albeit with a foot of snow.
If you’re a fan of survival films – and I’m talking Robert Redford’s ‘All is Lost’, Matt Damon in ‘The Martian’ or Sam Rockwell in Duncan Jones’ ‘Moon’ – you’ll love this.
There is probably no more than 5 words uttered in the whole movie, instead focusing on it’s lead presenting their internal monologue in a compelling and exciting way.
It’s no coincidence all the actors in these films are incredibly expressive and watchable – because whilst the plot does everything you pretty much expect it to, you’re still rooting for them, wincing at the hardship they endure and rallying around them at every pitfall.
Mads is obviously fantastic. You wouldn’t watch this unless you were a fan, but here we get a grizzled, desperate performance, but also one that is eternally optimistic and charitable.
Would I be as positive in his situation? Absolutely not – I’d be dead in an hour.
Filmed in Iceland, there’s not a shot wasted – Joe Penna has done a fantastic job of capturing the most beautiful vistas – and I’m desperate to find out how he accomplished some of the more frantic scenes – a real talent.
The plot is far more well trodden than the ground it films, but this very stoic Nordic tale of resilience, and endurance is a treat.
