The Northman
Dipping his toes, knees and hips into Scandi legend, Robert Eggers over-eggs the original Hamlet myth to melodramatic and ultimately laughable effect.
To bleed or not to bleed: Alexander Skarsgård
You know Hamlet. It’s all a bit over-the-top. It takes a director of some gall to re-invent it for a new generation. The American writer-director Robert Eggers has never been afraid to ladle on the atmosphere with a bucket. Eggers’ first film was the authentic, genuinely creepy The Witch (2015), with Anya Taylor-Joy, and then he made the Gothic black-and-white melodrama The Lighthouse (2019), a theatrical two-hander with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. Here, Eggers re-employs both Taylor-Joy and Dafoe and goes full-tilt at the Scandinavian legend Amleth, itself the inspiration for Shakespeare’s longest and most famous play. Of course, madness is at the core of Hamlet and Eggers buries his arms elbow-deep in the insanity, rage and blood of the 1601 tragedy.
The genuinely Scandinavian Alexander Skarsgård (The Legend of Tarzan) plays Prince Amleth (pronounced ʼamlet), who witnesses the brutal murder of his father King Aurvandill War-Raven (an unrecognisable Ethan Hawke) by his own uncle, Fjölnir (Claes Bang), while still a boy. Barely escaping with his own life, ʼamlet returns to his village to see its citizens butchered and his mother, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), carried off on horseback. He vows revenge on his treacherous uncle and, over the years, grows into quite the hunk, and eventually infiltrates the ranks of his uncle’s abysmally treated slaves. But he’s finally where he needs to be…
In spite of the strapline splashed across the poster, The Northman is not this generation’s Gladiator. It is a violent period tale of vengeance, but the comparisons end there. Where Eggers excels is with his visuals and the tenor of the dialogue. While not exactly Shakespeare, it is certainly not Valleyspeak. These characters scream not “OMG!” but “By Freyja!”, which would be nice if it caught on. And as ʼamlet sheaves his sword, he whispers to its silent powers: “Now, sleep well my blade.”
The trouble is, Eggers cranks up the notion of full-bloodied to a whole new level and has encouraged his actors to bark, bay and hiss at every opportunity. It’s like being yelled at by a chorus of Tom Waits impersonators at top volume. The visuals are impressive and the dense fog and lava flows of Iceland behave themselves dramatically, adding more layers of Nordic ambiance to the narrative thunder. But with the drum beats and sonic booms on the soundtrack, the guttural wailing of an international cast and the incessant violence, the overall effect is more Pythonesque than thrilling. Eggers remains an original and authentic voice, and he certainly has his following, but judging by the titters at the screening I attended, he has yet to secure his reputation as a convincing auteur.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Gustav Lindh, Ethan Hawke, Björk, Willem Dafoe, Elliott Rose, Phill Martin, Eldar Skar, Kate Dickie, Oscar Novak, Rebecca Ineson, Ralph Ineson.
Dir Robert Eggers, Pro Mark Huffam, Lars Knudsen, Robert Eggers, Alexander Skarsgård and Arnon Milchan, Screenplay Sjón and Robert Eggers, Ph Jarin Blaschke, Pro Des Craig Lathrop, Ed Louise Ford, Music Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough, Costumes Linda Muir, Sound Jimmy Boyle and Damian Volpe, Dialect coaches Brendan Gunn and William Conacher.
Regency Enterprises/Perfect World Pictures/New Regency/Square Peg-Universal Pictures.
137 mins. USA. 2022. UK Rel: 15 April 2022. US Rel: 22 April 2022. Cert. 15.
