Arctic (2018)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  7 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: As man-vs-nature movies go, they don't get much more brutal than Joe Penna's 'Arctic,' as it's a film that simply follows a crash victim stranded in the Alaskan arctic trekking to civilisation with some very difficult baggage. It's a painful watch; Mads Mikkelsen sells every shiver and wince, the dialogue is sparse and the cavernous white landscape is left to do the talking, and small moments of extra jepoardy push you further and further to the edge of your seat. It's effective stuff because it's executed with such pathos, and the result is a film for which you genuinely might want to pack a few jumpers.
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Unlike some man-vs-nature movies, it's got no real thematic points to make, and there are times when watching Mikkelsen scale another rock face or trek across a huge valley become rather disengaging. Also, in a film that leaves its visuals to do so much of the work, the score can become annoyingly intrusive sometimes.
  VERDICT: A very simple, very difficult man-vs-nature movie, 'Arctic,' is no thematic or character masterpiece, but it is a very well-executed piece of brutal visual cinema.

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