The film opens with a large man dressed in animal skins
attempting to shoot a goat with his homemade bow and arrow. He fails to nail his
quarry and ends up having to settle for a toad instead, which causes him to be
sick. He’s obviously a novice at the outdoor life and he soon heads to a petrol
station/grocery store where his lack of money leads to him fighting with the
staff and making off with a basket of shopping.
Meanwhile three more urban young men come a cropper when
they hit an elk in the road and crash. There is seemingly only one survivor,
and he staggers off with their large holdall of money. He soon stumbles into
the path of our fur clad hero Martin, who manages to carry out some pretty
decent first aid, including some stitches on a nasty leg gash.
Elsewhere the police are looking into Martin’s shop heist
and into the crashed car, which now has no bodies, unless you count the elk
hanging out of the front, which I do.
Two hapless policemen find the injured bagman but Martin
decides to help his new friend and handcuffs the two cops together. The bagman,
whose name is Musa, convinces Martin that they should head to an idyllic
village where people live as Vikings did, off the land. As they set off on
their quest a jaded police chief ramps up the investigation and Musa’s erstwhile
colleagues set about recovering their cash. Who will achieve their goal? – and is
it one that is worth having?
I quite enjoyed this film which was for the most part a
gentle comedy, but one laced with a bit of gore, torture and some killings. The
central theme was one of isolation and of people struggling with the modern
world.
We didn’t get a lot of backstory to Martin’s plight but we
know his life in the woods amounted to only ten days when we first encounter
him. His seemingly long-suffering wife and his two daughters – and their
rabbit! -set off from Denmark to find him in the Norwegian forests and, to be
fair, she does a lot better than the cops!
The ‘tired of life’ policeman was a bit of a cliché but I
liked his curmudgeonly attitude, and he got a fitting end, something akin to
that of Mike in ‘Breaking Bad’. There was some commentary on immigration and
the dilution of traditional values – some of it deliberate, such as the
monetised Viking village and some of it less so with the drugs trade seemingly
following the incomers. This slant was tempered by the Martin/Musa relationship
which ended on a positive note.
I don’t think I learned much here – certainly nothing about surviving
outdoors! – but it was a warm good-natured film that offered some social commentary
and a few laughs along the way.
Best Bit - Viking Village Visit
W Rating 15/23
