Review: The Northman
The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers, tells the tale of Prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), the son of King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) who, as a child, watched his father get brutally murdered by his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang) who then kidnaps his mother (Nicole Kidman). Young Amleth escapes the slaughter and grows up to be a vengeful Viking, seeking to avenge his father, rescue his mother, and kill Fjölnir. When fate offers him the chance to finally take his vengeance, Amleth teams up with a woman taken as a slave (Anya Taylor-Joy) and sets forth to face his destiny once and for all.
This is the latest film from director Robert Eggers who also directed The VVitch and The Lighthouse. So far Eggers has shown to be a very promising director, with The Lighthouse being one of my favorite films from 2019 and a film that continues to get better every time I watch it. His latest film, which is based off a Norse legend that inspired William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is somewhat surprising to me given its wide release right off the bat and marketing as a “normie” studio Viking epic film.
Robert Eggers is not a director I expected to work in a studio system given how “out there” his last two films were, but The Northman fits exceptionally well among his glowing filmography.
Just like with Eggers’s previous films, the amount of historical accuracy is insane. There’s a great level of detail with how the set pieces look, the use of Old Norse to amplify authenticity to the time period, the way characters practice certain customs, and the interweaving of Norse mythology into the film’s reality, making any interpretation of the events happening in the film entirely subjective and up to interpretation. The cinematography, as expected, looks absolutely gorgeous; the camera movements are fluid, edits in each scene are sparingly used or incredibly well hidden, and the lighting gives the film a sense of mysticism.
All the performances were fantastic; Alexander Skarsgård was great in the lead role, Anya Taylor-Joy (who worked with Eggers in The VVitch) was spectacular, Claes Bang was great, Nicole Kidman was great, Ethan Hawke gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from him despite having very little screen time, Willem Dafoe (who worked with Eggers in The Lighthouse) gave a very iconic Willem Dafoe performance despite not being in the movie for too long, and Björk was about as weird as you expect from a Björk performance. Eggers’s direction is fantastic, the writing from Eggers and Sjón was great, and the music was suitably epic.
Now with this being Eggers’s most accessible film to date there is a bit of a trade off: the film’s story isn’t as deep or interpretive as one might’ve hoped from the man who made the freaking Lighthouse. It’s a very basic revenge story that we’ve seen many times before but this time it involves Vikings; a lot of the story beats are very predictable and it’s really not hard to guess what’s going to happen next. The action sequences are also really clunky here; you can tell Eggers isn’t used to making studio films so a lot of the big fights in the film are rigid in their flow and movements. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of visceral bloody Viking goodness to be had here, but the stilted swinging of swords and tomahawks kind of takes you out of the film a bit.
Overall despite being a little too “normie” for cinephiles, this film is still a blast to sit through especially if you’re into Vikings. I’m glad to see big Hollywood studios taking a risk and producing more films for these auteurs with larger than life visions for their films. We’re only four months in and 2022 is turning out to be a pretty good year for films, let’s hope this streak continues. Go check this film out and see for yourself.
Final Verdict: 8/10