Tropic Sprockets / Arctic

By Ian Brockway

 

The Brazilian musician Joe Penna offers a striking directorial debut with “Arctic”. The story, a day by day account of a man lost in the polar reaches is not all that original by cinema standards and is essentially an “All Is Lost” tale, just replace ice for the Indian Ocean. Even so, “Arctic” manages to be immersive and visceral. This is due to the solid acting from Mads Mikkelsen who uses dramatic minimalism to the best advantage. Furthermore, he has one of the most intriguing faces in current cinema.

Overgård (Mikkelsen) is a crewmember of a small plane that crashes in the arctic. He is the only survivor. Day after day, he waits for help. He painstakingly carves an SOS in the ice in huge letters. The undertaking presumably took days to complete. Overgård cranks a kind of signal device by hand. Still, he waits.

He walks for hours only to return without aid.

Overgård has a pick and a fishing stick and he is fortunate enough to catch the odd fish or too. His face is gray and gaunt, his eyes, resembling the eyes of the fish that he ensnares, are blind to anything other than the task at hand.

He moves step by step, merely marching, it seems, so as not to go insane.

One day, during a snow squall, he sees a helicopter. His spirit rises. Overgård cannot believe it. The helicopter notices him and lowers on the horizon. Then it bumps and rocks. Horribly, it crashes.

Overgård reaches the aircraft, discovering a dead man and a woman (Maria Thelma Smáradóttir) in shock but alive.

Overgård resolves to take care of the young woman, who is injured severely.

Mikkelsen has such tension in his face that we are carried along in his struggle. He takes the ailing young woman everywhere. Up up up… depressingly there is invariably another hill to crest, another pole to stake, through the unending cold and pain.

Though the film does not quite have the charisma that Robert Redford showed to great effect in “All Is Lost” and might have benefitted from more asides and remarks, there is empathy, worry and feeling in Mikkelson who is very like Christ.

This is by far the actor’s best performance and one definitely feels Overgård’s desire and his pain by turns.

In its spare and stark method, “Arctic” fits in the canon of well done survival films. The film is a bookend of sorts to J.C. Chandor’s aforementioned film and a showcase for Mads Mikkelsen.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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