The Northman

Robert Eggers' The Northman is certain to be one of the more unforgettable movie experiences of 2022.  While mainly known for small, independent thrillers with The Witch and The Lighthouse, Eggers has been granted a healthy budget and a star-filled cast, and has been able to keep his visual story telling expertise.  Filled with incredible sights (and more than a few incredibly brutal ones), this is an experience that must be seen on the largest screen possible.

And while the film's tone is unrelentingly grim and bloody, it is teaming with life, thanks to its performances and a dazzling visual sense that creates some of the best images I've seen in a while.  The story of revenge is nothing new, and probably wasn't new when Shakespeare used this tale to inspire his play, Hamlet.  What Eggers and co-writer, the poet Sjón, have done is give us a memorably uncompromising tale that is expertly told.  Coming across as an ancient legend seen through the eyes of Game of Thrones, the movie is consistently entertaining, dazzling to the senses, and unforgettable in just about every regard.  I go to the movies for a lot of reasons, and one of them is to be transported to another world, time, or place.  The Northman not only does just that, but it's enthralling in a way that many recent action blockbusters wish they could be.

The film opens with its hero, Amleth, as a child (Oscar Novak) and the heir to the King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) and Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman).  Aurvandil returns from a long battle-hardened journey, wounded, but grateful to be back in the company of his son, who looks up to him as a noble and trustworthy man.  However, there is little time for Amleth to enjoy the company of his father, as his traitorous uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang) murders the King before young Amleth's eyes, and takes the Queen as his wife.  The soldiers working under Fjölnir's plot try to kill the kid as well, but he manages to escape, vowing to one day return to save his mother, avenge his father, and murder Fjölnir.  

We catch up with young Amleth 20 years later, and he is now a powerful and muscular man portrayed by the powerful and muscular Alexander Skarsgård.  The movie makes sure we see the work that the actor put into getting into this kind of shape every opportunity by portraying him bare chested (or tastefully and carefully edited nude) whenever possible.  Amleth has become a Viking Warrior, and decides that he is now powerful enough to avenge the wrongs of his uncle years ago.  He hitches a ride on a slave ship, and passes himself off as a quiet slave so that he can get close to Fjölnir and his family, which includes his mother the Queen, and a new son.  But are things as Amleth remembers?  When he has a private encounter with his mother, she tells him a few things about his father that he never knew.  But, with the aid of a fellow slave named Olga (Anya-Taylor Joy), Amleth will not let his mission be deterred.  

The Northman is consistently engaging visually, as it delves frequently into the realm of fantasy, but even the historical elements are richly observed here.  With beautifully muted tones, dark skies, and a climactic battle that looks like it was shot in the very depths of Hell itself, the cinematography and the costumes create such a feeling of a far away place that could exist once long ago, but in a much more lavish way, that it's certain to be remembered come Award Season next year.  But the movie is so much more than just a spectacle.  Its emotion is raw, and its violence is so brutal and uncompromising that it is shocking in the best way possible.  I was never once sickened or repulsed, but found myself drawn in, as the graphic violence is often an important aspect of the story.  It's not just shock value, but an important driving force, both to when Amleth swears vengeance for his father's death, and when Amleth's acts of vengeance start getting the attention of the treacherous Fjölnir.  

Even the performances are at the perfect level for this material, broad and theatrical, but never so over the top that they lose us, or that we start laughing at the material.  Skarsgård essentially has to look chiseled, dirty and pissed off for the entirety of his performance, but he does so in a way that is captivating.  Anya-Taylor Joy (perhaps giving the closest thing this movie has to a subtle performance) has a kind of unearthly beauty to her here, while Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe (as the King's Jester) make the most of their limited screen time here.  It would also be wrong not to point out Nicole Kidman, who gives one of her better performances in a while as Amleth's mother, who may not need saving, as her son eventually realizes.  In the wrong hands, this movie would come across as overwrought and overblown, but Eggers gets the right amount of intensity out of these performances, and the audience buys it completely.

With Everything Everywhere All at Once and now this, we've had two wonderful examples of glorious action films that are not based on comic books, proving that Hollywood can still pull it off.  The two movies obviously could not be any more different, but they both represent hope in true talent that can craft unforgettable images and performances that belong on the big screen.

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