Review by Sarah Williams
The long-take opening shot of Amundsen, The Greatest Expedition, a thrilling plane crash, is a high that's not quite returned to. The Roald Amundsen biopic by Norwegian Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man Tell No Tales and Kon-Tiki director Espen Sandberg is a road to an adventure that's never truly felt. Charting the lead-up to the explorer's renowned (and dangerous) polar exploration, the film falls flat when it eventually reaches the end of the world, with a danger that's never felt like that first aeroplane.
Leading the first expedition for the South Pole in 1911, and reaching both poles in 1926, Roald Amundsen (Pål Sverre Hagen) is given the Spielbergian-lite biopic treatment. Most of the film's strengths lie in galas and dinner meetings, scenes building anticipation for the expedition that feels far lower stakes than it should. Perhaps the focus isn't on the trip, but on the life leading to it, but with a team who is strongest with idolized heroes and glamorous set pieces, introspective, moody, character studies don't quote work. What does shine in these more mundane sections is the outside world around Amundsen. The period setting is beautifully assembled, and for a more minor release, one that's taken two calendar years from premiere to US release, it's startlingly detailed and accurate. The supporting performances are worth noting, with appearances from Christopher Rubeck and Katherine Waterston livening the affair.
What's baffling here is making a film where the selling point is the expedition, and then trying to study a character that's left dull instead. Amundsen's strained family relationships, and the romantic subplot, don't give any of the actual interesting aspects of his character, the lack of fear and why he would want to go where no man has before. The men on the expedition aren't particularly characters we care about, and it all feels far too low stakes. The film is part adventure saga, part slow period drama, and it doesn't quite stitch together. All we know in the end about Amundsen is that he is driven by ego, something that can be extrapolated watching countless other works about the renowned men of the time.
With set pieces like a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and the storyline of a Thanksgiving day release, Amundsen is a film that would have replayed the best at a Sunday afternoon matinee, the kind of harmless but forgettable film you see with your parents, shrug, and learn a few history facts from. It's hard to hide that it feels like a relic from fifteen years back, dated and formulaic, destined to be played in a freshman year geography class's end of year explorers unit. It's hard to judge it as a bad film, because it's not all that poorly made, this just feels like deja vu of years past, and the few highlights and surprises are never quite allowed to shine. The issue isn't poor craft, or an offensive misstep, Amundsen just that brings so little to the table that doesn't call back a forty year old formula. Amundsen, The Greatest Expedition is now available on VOD. Rating: 2/5
1 Comment
Victoria
10/22/2023 11:24:42 am
I have been surprised at the luke warm reviews for this movie, which I just watched last night. I actually was quite enthralled with the movie largely for the very reasons most reviewers seem to have been somewhat turned off. I am not a fan of "edge of your seat" adventure stories, but do love a movie like this that allows you to see someone like Amundson through the eyes of the people who were closest to him. I fear that both younger viewers and reviewers have grown so accustomed to the thrills and chills that permeate so many movies today, that the art of more subtle films just feels flat. I felt I got a very good picture of Amundson and who he was as a person through the narrative provided by his brother and his lover, while at the same time, I got enough of how grueling his trips were. Perhaps this film could have worked better had it been a longer mini-series on his life, but I felt very much engaged in both the personal landscape of a man driven by ego and ambition to achieve astonishing heights, and got a very good picture of how harrowing those adventures were. To me it was a good thing that it fell back on what this reviewer felt was "old fashioned" and that the director avoided trying to tap into the highs and lows of something closer to an adventure movie. I didn't expect something closer to Pirates of the Caribbean...I expected something closer to a Bergman film, and was very happy with what I got. So much so that I enthusiastically told my husband that I would watch it again because I believe he will also enjoy the movie. To me, it had a good mix of both the personal and the adventure. The production aspects and cinematography were astonishing. And so was the portrait of an heroic, but deeply flawed thrill-seeker - both as a man, a brother, a lover, and an adventurer/explorer who accomplished astonishing feats of historic proportions, without painting him as either hero or villain, or resorting to embellishing his life by making a hagiographic movie painting him as an heroic adventurer, but gave me a more emotionally satisfying picture of the man.
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