The Northman review: A bloodthirsty and slightly bonkers Viking epic

THE NORTHMAN

(15) 137mins

★★★★☆

TO Beowulf, or not to Beowulf – that is the question for this visceral, bloodthirsty and slightly bonkers Viking epic based on the Nordic folklore tale that also inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

It’s AD 895, and Alexander ­Skarsgård, as a hulking, monolithic slab of muscle and brawn, is the adult Prince Amleth, “a beast cloaked in man flesh”.

He is out to avenge the murder of his father, King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), which he witnessed as a child, at the sword of his Uncle Fjölnir (a menacing Claes Bang).

Young Amleth, presumed dead, fled and does a stint living with sadistic warriors who pillage Slavic villages, before an opportunity arises to steal onto a slave boat destined for Iceland, where his treacherous uncle lives, now married to Amleth’s mother Gudrún (Nicole Kidman).

Burping and farting

Finally, Amleth can get his revenge, which mostly entails gut-churning gore and extreme violence.

Hearts are ripped out, heads chopp­ed off, innards excised and the on-pitch rules for a brutal team game would never require VAR.

This is director Robert Eggers’ first big-budget film and he’s made the most of it. Illuminated by fire and moonlight, there are some breathtaking shots tracking volcanoes and fjords.

There’s also a dollop of Icelandic mythology (the script was co-written by Eggers and Icelandic novelist Sjón) which is patchier in its success. 

Native megastar Björk’s cameo as an eyeless, wheatsheaf-wearing seeress, or witch, is a treat, but Amleth flying into clouds on a white horse teeters on the Disney end of Fantasia.

Sometimes intensity levels spill over into pure silliness — a young Amleth and his father on all fours, howling, burping and farting as they ritualistically morph into man-wolves has a strong whiff of drama school improvisation class about it.

But not one performance lacks presence. Kidman is pure steel in Gudrún’s final confrontation with her first-born, Willem Dafoe, a captivating court fool, and Anya Taylor-Joy perfectly cast as Amleth’s ethereal love interest Olga.

The Northman is magical, mystical and relentlessly masculine, but also, in places, perhaps a little too much.

Laura Stott

THE LOST CITY

(12A) 112mins

★★★★☆

SANDRA Bullock is back to rom-com business and she’s met her match with Channing Tatum in this action-packed caper directed by the Nee brothers.

This Romancing The Stone-style film – co-written by the directing duo Oren Uziel and Dana Fox – follows a reclusive romance novelist and historian, Loretta Sage (Bullock), after she is kidnapped by Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe).

Abigail is the eccentric son of a billionaire media mogul who wants her to lead him to the ancient city from her latest story and find the lost treasure.

But this is an odd-couple caper as Alan (Tatum), her book cover model and secret admirer, attempts to become the hero from her novels and rescue her. 

This leads to both hilarious misunderstandings and poignant moments as Loretta realises you can’t judge a book by its cover model.

Tatum and Bullock have phenomenal chemistry, both romantic and comedic, and play off each other to great effect while Radcliffe takes to Machiavellian villainry with considerable ease.

Throw in some small but impactful and fun performances from Brad Pitt as a CIA operative and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Loretta’s publisher, and you have a romantic comedy that signals a return to form for a beloved genre.

OPERATION MINCEMEAT

(12A) 128mins

★★☆☆☆

YET another World War Two saga to add to the cinematic library, Operation Mincemeat tells the real-life story behind the plan to conceal the Allie’s invasion of Sicily from the Nazis.

Taking its cue from Ben McIntyre’s book, it follows the efforts of two MI5 operatives, Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen), bidding to deceive Hitler.

The agents planted fake documents detailing the supposed movements of British forces on the corpse of a tramp they dressed up as a naval officer.

It is a remarkable storyline given the granular detail of character-building that went into the operation, as well as the connection to James Bond creator Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn). 

Screenwriter Michelle Ashford throws in a few amusing 007 references, though the script is never quite funny enough or sufficiently dramatic when it is trying to be.

John Madden’s direction does inspire intrigue at times but the love-triangle side-plot between Firth, MacFadyen and Kelly McDonald’s secretary Jean Leslie feels tired and trite.

It ultimately detracts from what could have been a far more thrilling story about one of the most off-kilter military operations in wartime history.