2015 Norwegian disaster film, dir. Roar Uthaug, Kristoffer Joner, Ane
Dahl Torp: IMDb /
allmovie. The
Åkerneset mountain overlooks the tourist village of Geiranger, but a
landslide could cause a tidal wave along the fjord. It's going to. vt
The Wave.
Disaster films as a genre are generally split into the ones about
averting the disaster and the ones about dealing with it. This is
mostly the latter sort, but the disaster doesn't happen until half-way
through the film. It's never dull, though: Kristian, our
geologist-hero, is leaving his job monitoring the mountain to work for
the oil companies in Stavanger, his family's unhappy about the move
but coping with it, and the monitors on the rock face are starting to
show anomalous readings…
In terms of plot structure, this film enthusiastically follows the
standard disaster film pattern; but the clichés mostly flow logically
out of plausible situations. Yes, the chief geologist doesn't want to
sound the alarm in the middle of tourist season; but that's because
the evidence really isn't enough to justify a total evacuation,
unless you're a Mountain Whisperer like Kristian. Still, the plot is
the weakest thing here, and if you've seen disaster films before you
won't encounter any surprises.
On the other hand, everything else is great, and that does mostly make
up for it. The cast are allowed to look like real people, not
Hollywood dolls; the script lets them behave like grown-ups,
occasionally making mistakes or overreacting to things, but realising
that they've erred and apologising for it. With both of those things
supporting their acting, their emotions feel genuine (the relationship
between Kristian and his wife Idun, in particular, is superbly
realistic). The standard problem of disaster films, that the
humanising elements feel pasted-in and unconvincing, are thus avoided;
indeed, at times it all feels quite harrowing.
Special effects are significant, but never seem overdone. The
camera-work is superb, showing off gorgeous Norwegian fjord country at
its best and worst; and the camera doesn't shy away, as many modern
American films do, from showing dead bodies where there ought to be
dead bodies.
It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. This is apparently the first
Scandinavian-made disaster film; I wouldn't encourage them to stick
this closely to the template again, but I'd certainly like to see more
from cast and crew who are this good. Alas, director Roar Uthaug has
been taken away by Hollywood; his next film is Tomb Raider. Oh well.
At least we have this.
Trailer here; MaryAnn
Johanson's review
here.
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