Through a Freezing Wilderness, Two Stranded Individuals Fight to Stay Alive

Mads Mikkelsen in "Arctic"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

When it comes to movies about survival, there are many different directions in which a filmmaker can go.  They can either have their story take place in the uninhabited countryside, like in “The Revenant”; on a distant planet, like in “The Martian”; the vastness of outer space, like in “Gravity”; in the middle of the ocean, like in “Life of Pi”; in a series of canyons, like in “127 Hours”; on a secluded island, like in “Cast Away”; or in the desert, like in “The Flight of the Phoenix.”  This type of story remains gripping because they hook us with their attempts to have us rigid in our seats as we wait for the outcome of the characters who are trapped in these perilous situations.

Joe Penna uses the survival genre for his directorial debut feature film, “Arctic,” and in the process, he proves himself to be one of 2019’s exciting new visions behind the camera.

Overgård (Mads Mikkelsen) is stranded in the Arctic Circle and trying to endure the harsh conditions until rescue comes.  When a helicopter crashes near his site, the only survivor is a critically injured young woman (María Thelma Smáradóttir), whom Overgård brings back to his camp.  Not wanting to wait around any longer, Overgård decides to pull her on a sled and ventures out into life-threatening conditions to try to find help.

Mikkelsen, in a performance that’s pretty much wordless for 90 percent of his screen time, does well in bringing forth the hopelessness and hopefulness of his character’s predicament.  We see the intense focus that Mikkelsen’s character puts into his daily tasks as he works hard to survive, making us feel confident that Overgård will make it out okay, even if things remain uncertain.  When Overgård interacts with the young woman, you can sense how much he cares for her, despite communication being limited between them and them knowing each other for just a short while, which helps to add a stronger emotional angle to the story. 

The screenplay by Penna and Ryan Morrison plays out like your typical survival story, but it adds some subtle details in certain scenes that give the story more meaning than what’s on the surface.  You don’t learn a lot about Mikkelsen’s character as to who he was before the events of the movie, but that’s understandable because the movie is instead focused on showing you Overgård’s ingenuity as he keeps formulating methods of how to survive.  We learn about the aspects of his character that are important to the story, and in this case, it’s his resourcefulness, and it’s what keeps us in the story’s grip as we watch how far his survival skills will take him.

Tómas Örn Tómasson’s cinematography captures the disquieting feeling of being in a place that’s devoid of civilization and having to fend for yourself.  The vastness of the terrain that’s depicted has you experience the crushing isolation of the two characters, making it seem like the freezing temperature is wrapping itself around you and chilling you to the bone.

As a director, Penna knows how to utilize the surroundings within the environment of the film, making us realize that the emptiness around Overgård and the young woman in said environment is enough to put us in an anxious state as we wait to see what will become of them.  Penna delivers the intensity of this man vs. nature story and keeps the clock ticking faster and faster as the characters’ chances of being rescued seem to dwindle minute by minute.

Even if you’ve seen several movies about survival, “Arctic” still offers enough to draw you into the narrative, thanks to its commanding lead performance and Penna showing an ability to keep the tension flowing as Overgård and the young woman’s journey through a snowy and icy barrenness becomes more dangerous as the film goes on. 

With “Arctic” being part of the timeless story of what someone must do to battle the elements and live to see another day, Penna assures us that there’s still enough to do with the survival genre to keep us coming back.

Grade: A-