Arctic

 
Synopsis: A man (Mads Mikkelsen) stranded in the Arctic Circle after an airplane crash abandons the relative safety of his makeshift camp and embarks on a dangerous trek with an injured companion in the hopes of reaching safety.

I love wilderness/survivalist films for their fascinating stories of the never-ending battle between man and Nature, the seemingly inexhaustible human need for life-threatening challenge and the equally indomitable will to live when things go wrong But in the quest for non-negotiable authenticity they present formidable hurdles to the actors and film-making crew.  Debut director Joe Penna’s film, which he co-wrote with his editor, Ryan Morrison, ticks all the boxes, especially so for me because it is set in the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle.

In 2017 we saw Walking Out, about a young man carrying his injured father through the snowy hinterland of Montana. Arctic has a similar premise but it is a starker and more elegant film. Really there are only two elements to it: Mads Mikkelsen's stranded survivor, Overgärd, and the unidentified snow-covered landscape (the film was shot in Iceland). And even here Penna doesn’t fetishize or exploit the dangers of the setting (there is a brief sequence in which a polar bear tries to make a meal of the travellers). Rather, the emphasis is on the stranded man’s response to his situation which for all its inhospitable strangeness is in its in its own terms, mundane.  Sub-zero temperatures, blinding snowstorms and a frozen, stony terrain are its everyday realities.

Overgärd is a methodical, resourceful man and the first section of the film shows us his carefully-managed approach to survival – catching and storing fish, laying out a giant S.O.S., sending radio signals and bedding down in the carcass of his broken plane. Things change however when a helicopter trying to land in a storm crashes, killing the pilot and leaving a female co-pilot injured and unconscious. After a couple of days and the woman not reviving Overgärd decides that he must strike out across the frozen landscape in order to try to save her.

We get no back story for Overgärd and given that the only other character is unconscious and there is no dialogue beyond the occasional bit of self-talk, the task of making this narratively simple story compelling is down to Mikkelsen.  The Danish actor, from whom we have deservedly come to expect a committed performance, does a marvellous job of bringing home Overgärd’s quiet heroism and rousing humanity.  Although on one level with enough alpha male qualities to make him an exemplary wilderness survivor once he finds himself with a companion, even a comatose one, his emotional needs begin to show through his stoic exterior. The pivotal scene in which he cradles the unconscious woman in his arms before laying her down is a poignant one and the catalyst for everything that happens subsequently as Overgärd risks his life to save hers. The journey he undertakes sees him, in addition to fending off the aforementioned bear attack, fall into a crevasse, his leg getting wedged between rocks in a way reminiscent of 127 Hours (2011) although not with as disastrous consequences.  Indeed, this misfortune leads to a clever plot twist.

With such an understated approach the question of how the story will end becomes a tantalizing one. Too celebratory a finale and the tone would jar, too sombre and audiences would turn away.  Penna manages, just, to find a way out of this conundrum.

Tomas Orn Tomasson's cinematography makes a hauntingly stark backdrop for this lonely, life-or-death odyssey which in turn is elegantly punctuated by Joseph Trapanese's minimalist electronic score.  With Mikkelsen’s compelling  performance, sustained by an equally committed crew filming under what would have been, to say the least, demanding circumstances, Arctic will be a rewarding film, especially for those who love to immerse themselves in stories of survival from the comfort of their armchair.

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