THE NORTHMAN

"Now remember for whom you shed your last teardrop. Remember the oath to right the wrong. Remember the Raven King. Remember. Remember, it contains the salty ocean you must sail upon to the edge of the world. It will take you to an island in the north where there will spring a burning lake, bursting from a black mountain's peak. Follow the vixen's tail to the dwelling of the ancient one to seek the fated sword that matches your brutal rage." - Seeress

Illuminated by fire light and carried by whispers across the sea, stories of princes and witches and honor live and die on the tongues of townsfolk who recite them. Some legends, wrought with rage and imbued with violence, are monstrous enough to stand the test of time. Seemingly allergic to the modern cinematic era, no one is better at chronicling such tragedies than Robert Eggers… or so we thought. Plagued with predictability and amateur writing, Eggers’ new epic ‘The Northman’ misses his reputable mark.

A tale seeded in vengeance, ‘The Northman’ follows Amleth, the son of an Icelandic viking king, who witnesses his father’s murder. Bound by a blood oath, Amleth vows to enact revenge on his father’s murderer. Consumed by indignation and apathy, he grows into a brutal, animalistic savage, burning down villages and slaughtering the masses. Until one night–he is visited by a seeress who prophesies that he will have to choose between the love for his family and the fury that poisons his future. A fable of consequences, corruption and fate, ‘The Northman’ delivers a simple folktale at a painfully slow pace.

Short of calling it boring, the film’s biggest setback is its easily anticipated narrative progression. Nothing is worse than knowing exactly how a film is going to end right from the jump. Not only that, but between the actually impactful scenes, which were few and far between, were unnecessary fluff that added nothing to the overall message and felt misplaced amidst all the gore. Ultimately, the action sequences felt unrehearsed, the supernatural elements lacked mystifying intensity (excluding Bjork’s), and the palpable omnipresence of fury remained a mild simmer, never reaching the expected boiling point.

Despite this overused, Hamlet-esque narrative, ‘The Northman’ does have some redeeming value. Notably, Eggers personifies the concept of revenge through feral, animalistic reenactments. The parallels between vengeful barbarism and blind familial honor is quite poignant, including several scenes where men seemingly transform into bears and wolves crawling on all fours and growling into the night. The idea that revenge is all consuming and deadly is not new, but this refreshing interpretation of its insidiousness adds more of an intellectual flair and visual gratification.

Sure, seeing Alexander Skaarsgard naked and filthy constantly saying “I will have my vengeance” does spark a degree of excitement, but it doesn’t hide the fact that the main protagonist is fairly one dimensional. Anya Taylor-Joy’s Olga, gifted with esoteric authority, claims she will defeat her enemies with her cunning mind, but after concocting only one potion, she reverts back to her docile, subservient place under patriarchal control. The biggest transgression of wasted potential was Willam Defoe’s fool. Perfectly casted, Defoe was only utilized for five minutes in the first act of the film, and worse, his best scene was a voice over of his character’s decapitated, rotting head.

Surprisingly, the breakout performance of the film is none other than Nicole Kidman. Relatively pigeonholed to more glossier drama flicks and a couple thrillers, Kidman delivers a chilling portrayal of Queen Gudrun. Regardless of the feeble plot twist attempt with her character, she nails the hysterical, protectively driven mother. Similarly, and also in spite of his poorly developed character arc, Alexander Skaarsgard delivers an eerily emotional portrayal of a scorned son desperate to fulfill his prophetic destiny. Each actor fed off the other, and because of this, a permeated realism helped enhance an ephemeral, slow-burning narrative.

Like dropping the proverbial ball, Eggers sloppily depicts the Machiavellian nature of revenge. Even with his usually impressive stylistic imprint, nothing could save the monotonously stale lullaby that was ‘The Northman’. From now on, we’ll conveniently focus on his masterful work for ‘The VVitch’ and ‘The lighthouse,’ and blissfully forget about this addition to his filmography.