The Northman

THE NORTHMAN (15)

D: Robert Eggers

Focus Features / Regency / New Regency / Square Peg / Perfect World (Mark Huffam, Lars Knudsen, Robert Eggers, Alexander Skarsgård & Arnon Milchan)

US 🇺🇸 2022

136 mins

Adventure/Historical

W: Robert Eggers & Sjón [based on “The Legend of Amleth” by Saxo Grammaticus]

DP: Jarin Blaschke

Ed: Louise Ford

Mus: Robin Carolan & Sebastian Gainsborough 

Alexander Skarsgård (Amleth), Nicole Kidman (Queen Gudrün), Claes Bang (Fjölnir), Anya Taylor-Joy (Olga), Ethan Hawke (King Aurvandill), Willem Dafoe (Heimir), Björk (The Seeress)

Following up on his critically-acclaimed The Witch & The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers turns his attentions to Scandinavian mythology for this adaptation of an Old Norse legend which formed the inspiration to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

As a child, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), witnesses the murder of his father, King Aurvandill, by his uncle as part of a coup, before he flees to safety. 

Several years later, as an adult, Amleth returns to exact revenge, but his uncle has too been exiled and there are further secrets and scandals unveiled when he does finally discover his whereabouts.

It’s a story that will surely be familiar to millions as it has been done in various guises, but this is far from a run-of-the-mill / voyage & return revenge tale, not only due to its influences from Norwegian folklore and symbolism towards that, as it’s perfectly accessible to those who aren’t a scholar in Scandinavian history.

The performances from the ensemble cast are all excellent, though Nicole Kidman with a face full of plastic surgery just doesn’t ring true, not to say that I’d call it a poor performance.

It certainly won’t be a film for everyone, as it doesn’t follow the usual Hollywood mechanisms of providing exposition or explaining all the references within, but I consider it a strong film for all that, and certainly amongst the best films of the year for 2022.

8/10