The Northman – Film Review

Prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy’s mother. Two decades later, Amleth is now a Viking who raids Slavic villages. He soon meets a seeress who reminds him of his vow — save his mother, kill his uncle, avenge his father.

In my opinion, Robert Eggers is one of the greatest filmmakers working today. He first cemented himself a promising new voice with the release of his feature directorial debut The Witch, which was a carefully crafted descent into madness set in 1630s New England. He then followed up his career in 2019 with The Lighthouse, a claustrophobic horror about two lighthouse keepers that get more and more insane with each passing day.

There’s something so incredibly discomforting and cold about his movies but you can’t help but keep your eyes glued to the screen. Although Lighthouse is a difficult and uncomfortable movie to watch, it’s easily one of the best modern horror films. Ever since those two films, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Eggers’ next project to see what else he has up his sleeve. Now, we have The Northman, an epic historical action film – something I honestly never would have predicted he’d make, but alas, here we are.

I do want to get it right out of the gate and say that The Northman is without a doubt the weakest movie in Eggers’ career thus far. It doesn’t have that creepy, lingering sense of dread feeling that The Witch and The Lighthouse have. It’s also not a horror film. This is a sprawling historical epic, and it’s a rather amazing one at that. From the moment it begins to the moment it ends, The Northman is an enthralling revenge tale, and one that will keep you on your toes.

The first act of the film is brilliant. It feels unlike anything Eggers has done before while also feeling exactly like the type of stuff we’ve seen from him before. It’s a warm welcome to the rest of the story to come, and I feel like it’ll be even better upon rewatch. It’s in this act where things get truly crazy and it’s going to be nearly impossible for you not to get invested after watching it.

Sadly, though, the second act is where things take a bit of a turn for the worse because here, the film gets a little bit boring and the story comes to a strange halt. Things don’t move as smooth and quick as they did in the first act, and there’s an awful lot of talking here that didn’t all need to be included in the final, theatrical cut of the project. I’d say that a good twenty minutes could’ve been removed from this movie and it wouldn’t have made a difference in the story at all.

Thankfully though, during this rather boring second act, we do have some things to be entertained by, namely the performances all across the board. Alexander Skarsgård is absolutely phenomenal in the role of Amleth, the protagonist of the story. All you have to do is take one good look at his character to be intimidated and afraid of him. The entirety of the film follows him on a quest to avenge his father, which is why it’s amazing that they cast Skarsgård in this role. Just looking into his eye feels risky. He’s almost too good for the role.

There’s also Anya Taylor-Joy who gets a rather interesting role here, and one that gets fleshed out extremely well. She previously worked with Eggers on the aforementioned Witch, where she served as the lead actress. She doesn’t get as much screentime here, but it was certainly nice to see her partner up with Eggers once again. But easily one of the most surprising performances in the film comes from Nicole Kidman, who portrays Queen Gudrún.

Long story short – her role is shocking. I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil anything, but the things that the film does with her character took me by complete surprise and in all the right ways. Seriously, I would be campaigning hard for Best Actor and Actress nominations for Skarsgård and Kidman, respectively. Will it happen? No. But one can certainly hope and pray.

The film also looks truly marvellous, shot by the incredible Jarin Blaschke, who shot both of Eggers’ previous films. Every single frame on display here looks stunning, and at the very least, this movie should be nominated for best cinematography. It’s definitely the second best looking film of the year for me, right behind Matt Reeves‘ The Batman.

Is The Northman a perfect movie? Absolutely not. It’s a bit too long, has a slow second act, and some plot points are straight-up confusing, but it nevertheless remains a visually striking, pulse-pounding revenge tale brought to life by Eggers’ impressive mind.