Beautifully poetic, gorgeously shot, savagely violent, and grimly atmospheric, director Robert Eggers has successfully melded art house filmmaking with more mainstream storytelling, making The Northman an engrossing old fashioned epic Viking revenge tale for the ages. The film is packed to the brim with Norse mythology elements and references, so I had to rewatch it last night in order to give a proper review. Alexander Skarsgård commits to such a physical, emotionally intense, and animalistic role as Viking prince Amleth, bringing to life a morally conflicted lead character hungry for bloody vengeance. Skarsgård sells every moment of the brutal action scenes as he does the more dramatic and emotional moments. Anya Taylor Joy is also excellent as the slave Olga, providing the perfect formidable ally and love interest to Amleth’s tortured soul. Perhaps the most understated performance in this film has to be Nicole Kidman. I don’t want to give away her role, but I’ll just say that she does an outstanding job at being a cold sadistic bitch. The Goblin himself Willem Dafoe as Heimir the Fool isn’t in the movie that much, but when he is, he puts on one hell of an acting clinic. Claes Bang as Fjölnir is ruthless, menacing, and is the ultimate physical match for Skarsgård’s Amleth. From the fittingly grey-ish color tones to the impeccably detailed medieval set designs and stunning locations, this is an indie filmmaker’s wet dream, just from those technical aspects. The film may be too slow and confusing for some, and I think the pacing would be 100 percent if about 10 minutes of runtime would be shaved off. Also, this isn’t a flaw per se, but some of the Nordic accents are spoken so thick, that it would be ideal to watch the movie with subtitles. Overall though, The Northman is a weird, different, Shakespearean, mythological, mystical, viscerally barbaric, and epic piece of cinema by Eggers that will have film buffs clamoring for the independent filmmaker to continue helming more of these medieval action tales with a huge cast and even bigger budget.
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