Arctic

Arctic_360P

I should have better understood the warning other Imdb reviewers already gave: nothing much happens. Some professional reviewers lauded this picture as sparse and sober. But read boring boring boring instead, because that was what it was. I love Mads Mikkelsen, he is one of my favorite actors, but he has no dialogue at all. Half his face is covered with scarves and polar hats all the time, therefore his facial expressions are limited as well and that is all we get to see.Bummer! The story is incredibly boring as well. He gets stranded at the norhtpole and he starts walking, looking for help. And some more walking and some more looking for help. All the time without any dialogue. The music score got on my nerves as well after half an hour. This whole boring mess of a movie got on my nerves after half an hour. Then I at least expected/hoped/ wished to see gorgeous photography. But none of that either. Any polar exploration on the discovery channel has more suspense and beauty.

Brilliant film,.. wish they didn't cut off the ending like they did.. frustrating...

Quite suddenly we're dropped in the middle of nowhere in the snow with Mads Mikkelsen. Several meaningless minutes later the plot starts to unravel. A chance of survival, a tough journey ahead, the promise of a good movie. And it's not bad. But it never quite exceeds the level of mediocrity it starts on. To the background of the gorgeous panoramic views of a desolate ice-cold landscape, plays a story that is everything but innovative, guided by a dull musical score that might as well have been left behind. We feel no connection with the characters, for we never get to know who they are, but on the other hand it ís a relief to notice that the makers chose not to include another hour of dragging background info. Only, now it felt a bit empty. Just a human having a hard time. But Mads Mikkelsen! You have treated us on the performance of a lifetime! With only a handful of lines you damn near had me crying out your pain with you. A middle aged woman seated just a couple stools to my right even really did! And for a second there I thought she was having a heart attack after a jump scare. So it does reach the audience through Mikkelsen's incredible performance, but overall... it's just a nicely made movie that's easy to forget.

My kind of film. Doesn't spoon feed everything to you. Great acting, exciting, and unpredictable. And the setting was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Great film!

Arctic is the debut feature from director Joe Penna, whom you might recognise as Mystery Guitar Man from the early days of YouTube. Here he has teamed up with the ever fantastic Mads Mikkelsen to create a story of survival in one of the harshest environments on earth, the Arctic tundra. The film shows only what it needs to, starting with a cold open (no pun intended) where we are presented with Mads' character, a pilot who has already been stranded for a while after his plane went down in a snow covered valley. Using materials from his downed plane, Mads seems to have been getting by for a while, until for a certain reason he embarks on a perilous journey to find some kind of salvation. Penna directs with restraint on location, and you can really tell how much poor Mads went through here. With a mostly silent performance, Mads' body language and the camera convey most of the story and works very very well. Arctic feels very realistic all the way through, even when Mads' has the inevitable encounter with a Polar Bear none of it felt fake and we had a fair few gasps and jumps from the audience at Adelaide Film Festival. With an uncompromising vision of the raw and desolate tundra, Arctic pulls everything together for a great story of survival and willpower with a beautiful performance by Mads Mikkelsen. Arctic is out early next year, thanks to Adelaide Film Festival for the screening and passes used for this review!

I went to see Arctic for only one reason: Mads Mikkelsen. I could be called a fangirl, to be honest, I don't mind. He has an incredible skill and even better personality (or at least "public personality"). He is humble and gives his whole heart to each project he participates in. No matter if it's a small film by an unknown director or a huge blockbuster from Marvel or Star Wars franchise. And when you hear him talking about it, the perception changes completely. I used to love Mads for his Hannibal, but my true appreciation came after The Hunt and knowing how much he differs from both of the characters. And what was very important to me, he decided not to go into method acting. He wanted to stay himself for his family. So no matter how he loves his job, he didn't want to make the choice between that and the life of a husband and a father. After the introduction, I feel obliged to say why I made this fangirl's ode. Arctic is a one-actor film. Apart from a very small role of an unknown Thai actress, Mads Mikkelsen was the only face we follow for over one and a half hour. I couldn't have thought of any better choice for that challenge. Mads' face can show volumes of feelings which I don't believe mine can. He can tell everything without words and this was the magic of Arctic. The story focuses on a pilot whose plane crashed somewhere close to the North Pole. Through his routine, he wants to establish a connection with civilization. He clears his SOS sign, he catches fish and tries to charge a radio with the strength of his muscles. He spends every hour doing exactly what he planned to increase the chances of being rescued. But then his survival routine changes because of yet another plane crash. A Thai woman survived it but she got an ugly wound and is now sick. She can't leave the bed, she's barely conscious so he decides to save her by any means necessary. The film itself couldn't differ much from any other survival one. Human survival in difficult habitat isn't a very broad subject and I strongly believe that cinema explored all of these emotions at least a thousand times. The art lies in expression and creating the atmosphere of empathy. Thoughts of what I would do in such a situation bugged me for the entire film and long afterwards. The reflection of humanity and our ethics was told by almost silent film and it stuck me with questions I believed I'd known answers to. Meanwhile, it made me appreciate the beauty of the icy landscapes. The cinematography work was very thorough, especially since they were shooting while the snow was melting. All these icebergs were magnificent and mesmerizing. They composed perfectly with the music by Joseph Trapanesse (known from The Greatest Showman, Oblivion or Straight Outta Compton). To be honest there's nothing more I could say that won't feel at least blunt. It is hard to describe feelings, especially the ones which are shown, not told. This film has the magic of the story about how to be true to oneself and how to love one another, no matter how hard the situation becomes.

This survival movie consisted of many many elements of other survival movies we've seen such as Cast Away and 127 hours but it felt new. I couldn't pin point why the movie didn't feel boring or overdone even though I'd seen some of the plot point before. It all lies in Mads Mikkleson's character. In every other movie we watch and cringe at the survivalist doing everything wrong but pushing on in spite of it. In Arctic, Mads does everything right. He clearly has survival training and is putting his knowledge to good use. He should be able to get help no problem, but despite all his efforts, it's the world that keeps tearing him down, not his ignorance as we see in so many other survival movies. We route for him and grieve when it doesn't go his way because we know he's doing absolutely everything by the book but it's just not going his way. It's also incredible how Mads says the same few sentences over and over and it means something different every time he says it. There's so much emotion and meaning behind his few words.

Arctic is for a good part, a solo survival thriller centered around the character of Overgård who has been trying to make it out of the frozen Arctic after his plane crashed. This is one of those movies that focuses almost entirely on a single character with minimal dialogue. Much is conveyed through the body language and facial expressions of Overgård, played by the brilliant Mads Mikkelsen. It's a grim but stunningly icy atmosphere that Joe Penna chooses to set his protagonist in, and we clearly know that it's not going to be easy to sit through. Overgård has been surviving on Arctic fish, trying his best to send out signals to any possible rescuers, and he doesn't know of an escape route (yet!). When supposed help does arrive, it only worsens the situation (watch the movie to know more!). Joe Penna wants us to witness the perseverance of his lead character by putting him through scenarios that get increasingly difficult each time. By doing so, he creates a spectacle that's minimalist but superbly effective. Overgård's struggles make us want to forget our own for a good 90 minutes, and Mikkelsen, the fantastic performer that he is, ensures that his efforts remain worth the discussion later on. The dramatics are barely there; it all plays out so real that when Mikkelsen heaves 'essential baggage' up a snowy hill, we heave along with him. When he sheds a tear, we shed a tear along with him. And when an actor achieves this feat by getting to mouth barely any lines, that speaks volumes of his performance. While watching 'Arctic', one cannot help but recall other popular survival drama/thrillers such as 'Cast Away', 'All Is Lost', and '127 Hours' and how each of these movies has had strong protagonists who we wanted to root for. Overgård can be added to this list without question. The cinematic hook here is how he decides not to let go of his humanity while making his way through the frosty surroundings. That said, the film does rely a little too much on the machismo of Mikkelsen and never rises above its basic, straightforward screenplay (there's no solid backstory attributed to Overgård and how he ended up there in the first place). Nonetheless, Arctic is one of the better survival films that you'll have come across in recent memory. It'll make you want to stay off a diet that has fish in it; maybe even keep you away from air-conditioning for a little while. Arctic is, by all means, essential viewing!