It’s with an air of plausibility that Norway enters the disaster film realm. The Wave (Bølgen) has all the terror that simultaneously mountainous and watery terrain can inspire at its disposal — unstable cliffs, narrow crevices, and towering swells among them — as well as historical precedent. As the footage that comprises the feature’s preamble explains, the Scandinavian nation has experienced tragedy previously. Rockslides and tsunamis claimed lives on three occasions during the twentieth century, with the events in Tafjord in 1934 informing director Roar Uthaug (Escape) and writers Harald Rosenløw-Eeg (A Thousand Times Good Night) and John Kåre Raake’s (Ragnarok) man-against-nature thriller.
Of course, The Wave‘s key creatives have clearly seen the swathe of Hollywood blockbusters that have torn the world apart one giant storm, menacing surge, and treacherous rock formation at a time in recent decades, and are well aware of just how such forays into life-or-death situations typically unravel on screen. Brandishing an “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude, they craft an addition to the fold that not only leans upon the real-life basis for their narrative to differentiate the film from the bulk of similar ilk, but emphasises a well-earned sense of emotional scale. The titular upsurge may loom large over the movie; however Uthaug and company know that it’s the people dwarfed by its destructive presence that keep viewers engaged in the story.
Geologist Kristian Eikfjord (Kristoffer Joner, The Revenant), his hotel worker wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp, 1001 Grams), teenage son Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Satisfaction 1720), and younger daughter Julia (debutant Edith Haagenrud-Sande) are preparing to move away from the film’s picturesque setting of Geiranger when The Wave commences, with Kristian keen to leave the stress of suspecting impending doom behind in favour of an oil company job in the city. Alas, as the Eikfjord clan pack and say their goodbyes, and Kristian winds things up at work, he can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. Seismic warning signs spark his fears, which only grow as he comes across more evidence. By the time he has convinced his colleagues that a catastrophe is imminent, the townsfolk have just ten minutes to escape.
As clichéd as The Wave sounds, there’s a difference between blindly embracing convention and convincingly making the usual formula work to your advantage. There’s also a difference between assuming that toeing the customary line is inherently entertaining, and demonstrating the care needed to lift a tried-and-tested tale beyond its template. In both cases, it’s the latter that Uthaug achieves as he nods to every standard inclusion and yet never lets his characters or his aesthetic approach feel routine. In a domain as crowded as the disaster genre, taking the time required to ensure the big CGI threat isn’t the only point of interest can — and does — have a considerable impact.
Accordingly, when Kristian becomes separated from his family, and Idun and Sondre struggle to survive, the script adheres to a predictable path — but thanks to the convincing work of Joner and Dahl Torp, as well as the blend of apocalyptic-like and intimate imagery, tension still remains in every scene. Here, neither the lead performances nor the efforts of cinematographer John Christian Rosenlund (Norwegian TV’s The Half Brother) can be underestimated, with the usual scrambling and searching given an added sense of realism courtesy of textured portrayals and hand-held visuals. As a result, when the wave strikes, it’s not the only force that the film makes felt. Two million cubic metres of rock and a wall of water more than 85 metres high are hard to top, and The Wave doesn’t try to; instead, it gives the fright-inducing natural events their due, but also gives the human drama the same courtesy.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
The Wave (Bølgen)
Director: Roar Uthaug
Norway, 2015, 105 mins
Scandinavian Film Festival
www.scandinavianfilmfestival.com
Sydney: 5 – 27 July
Melbourne: 6 – 27 July
Canberra: 12 – 27 July
Brisbane: 13 – 27 July
Adelaide: 19 – 27 July
Hobart: 20 – 27 July
Perth: 21 July – 3 August
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