Joe Penna’s directorial debut Arctic was a movie I highly anticipated, one that I didn’t absolutely love as much as I thought I would during its viewing, but one that stuck around with me well after it was over and one that’s worth a review. I wish this movie were based on a true story. It would have made the movie more meaningful. But, at the same time, Penna could have easily said that this was inspired by true events because, of course, it was. There are survival stories like the one in Arctic across this wonderful planet every single day, whether it be in the frozen terrain in the middle of the Arctic nowhere, or in on a mountain, or in the middle of a forest, a desert, an ocean, or any other location where it would be deemed unsurvivable for the average person in the short-term and anyone in the long-term. So while the story of Overgård (Mads Mikkelsen – NBC’s Hannibal, The Hunt) is not his own, I don’t think the move is lessened because of what we know do know about stories where a person or a group of people are stranded in the middle of nowhere and either survive or don’t survive.
Learn from my mistake and don’t watch the trailer for this movie. It gives away too much, including the few surprising parts. I’m not too fond of that. The poster and the Rotten Tomatoes score were enough. Rule number one for me is to be convinced without the trailer. If the poster, word of mouth, RT score, critics’ reviews aren’t enough, I’ll start with the extended movie trailer. When I’m convinced I will see the movie or not see the movie based on the trailer, I stop the trailer. Instead, I watched the entire trailer for Arctic, and my movie experience suffered some as a result. But, withstanding that, my movie was, for the most part, enjoyable. At 98 minutes, it was a perfect length…in fact, it could have been 10 minutes shorter, and that would have been perfectly acceptable as well. What will turn most people away from this film is that there is virtually no speaking. There might be a total of 100 words spoken. It’s like the middle of Cast Away without Tom Hanks talking to his volleyball. In fact, Arctic makes Cast Away look like the Mickey Mouse Club, and I LOVE Cast Away. I believe I cried when Wilson floated away in the ocean.
As mentioned, the always fabulous Mikkelsen plays Overgård, a researcher-explorer who has crash-landed his tiny, two-person plane as gone down in the middle of a cold and stormy white wilderness. His plane is inoperable to fly, but it is still intact to live in. While cold, it can be completely sealed and even locked. There is a bed that he’s too big for but makes work with the help of a table. We also are never told how long he has been there. It’s been at least a couple of weeks. It may have been a couple of months. He’s lost the better parts of a few of his toes to frostbite. One thing we do know is that he won’t run out of water (hell, if the world ran bone dry, he’d be the last person left on earth) or food. Overgård has multiple ice fishing stations set outside of living quarters where he has frequent small successes with sashimi and the occasional salmon. His days are spent finding rocks to make massive S.O.S. signals, trekking up to the highest point within walking distance from the plane to use (what looks like an ancient) radio transmitter to try to locate other aircraft in the area and avoiding dangerous predators. While he has a good sense of direction and a functional map that can get him to the closest place of human habitation, he knows that his best bet is to be found. Even if those looking for him don’t know exactly where his plane went down, he has all of the elements he needs to survive exactly where he is. He could probably make it an entire year or more if he had to.
However, that would be a pretty boring movie to watch him fish, use a transmitter to try to radio for help, and move stones around each day. Early enough in the film, a helicopter does spot him and tries to make a daring rescue. Unfortunately, it gets caught up in the wind. It hits the earth hard, killing its pilot in the process and leaving the only other character in the film (Maria Thelma Smáradôttir) injured and in need of desperate help to survive. Her abdomen has been severed badly. Overgård is able to bandage it with the chopper’s first aid kit, and he’ll be able to care for her after he sleds her back to his plane. He’s even excited about the supplies that he’s found on the helicopter after the crash. However, her wound becomes infected, and she begins developing a terrible fever. While he knows he could sit and wait for rescue, the woman (who speaks, I think one word in the movie) cannot. She needs immediate medical care. And to do so, Overgård has to get the two over the treacherous mountain terrain to reach a strip that has much more known traffic. And this is where we have our movie.
It goes without saying that things don’t go as plan as they trek out for their multiple-day journey. There will be obstacles of all kinds along the way, including the mountains, the snowy surface, the wild, sinkholes, the cold, and the pure exhaustion of not having to just carry your own supplies for staying alive but also having to trudge a full-grown woman in a sled. The pushing, pulling, grunting, slipping, falling, etc., by Overgård is enough for us never to want to travel anywhere alone in our lives ever again.
It is a pleasurable watch that is one that also makes us squirm in our seats at the same time. The runtime of 98 minutes is fine, all things considered. With the early repetition and little action until beyond the halfway mark, you would think that it would make for a dull watch. It’s not. It’s a movie that when you leave it, you won’t really know if you like it or not, but one that you will stick with you for much longer than you think. I attribute most of that to the veteran Mikkelsen, who is great in everything he does (seriously, see The Hunt) more than I do for first-time director Penna. Though for a debut effort, he could have done much, much worse.
If you like survival films, there isn’t much of a reason why you wouldn’t like this one. But, if survival movies aren’t your thing, Arctic definitely isn’t the movie for you. But, if it comes across on cable late at night and you are willing to give it full attention, you could be pleasantly surprised.
Plot 8/10
Character Development 7/10
Character Chemistry 5/10 (NA really, but…)
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 6/10
Hook and Reel 7/10
Universal Relevance 9/10
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