Oil & Water
the Norwegians are at it again, this time warning of an oil disaster just beyond the fjords. Bet Trump don’t want these folks now.
The north Sea
Director: John Andreas Andersen • Writers: Harald Rosenløw-Eeg, Lars Gudmestad
Starring: Kristine Kujath Thorp, Henrik Bjelland, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Anders Baasmo, Bjørn Floberg, Anneke von der Lippe, Ane Skumsvoll, Christoffer Staib, Nils Elias Olsen
Norway • 1hr 44mins
Opens Hong Kong September 22 • IIA
Grade: B-
Somewhere along the way Norway became the go-to national cinema for disaster junkies. Where the Hollywood versions tend to get bogged down in VFX and aggressive moustache-twirling, the Norwegians have pivoted to logic, uber-competence and realistically drawn characters in more realistic situations. Hey, I love the idea of an upside down cruise liner, but really? So to that end we’ve been treated to a fairly strong trinity: Roar Uthaug’s The Wave (tsunami ravages Geiranger), John Andreas Andersen’s The Quake (earthquake ravages Oslo) – both starring Kristoffer Joner – and Pål Øie’s The Tunnel (truck explosion ravages a mountain bypass). Maybe the appeal of these modest epics comes down to the creators applying the total, efficient Scandinavian treatment to them. There’s little room for stupidity in Norway’s calamity cinema. Everyone is well trained and skilled at their jobs, they don’t waste time trying to see a bullshit phantom “other side” of the story, and the people who should be prepared for zaniness, in fact, are.
Into this burgeoning tradition comes Andersen’s The North Sea (Nordsjøen), basically a cautionary reckoning tale about our collective plundering of the earth and the inevitable blowback there’s going to be – which represents another addictive quality of ScanDisaster: its grounding in plausibility. Aliens asploding the White House is great, but not plausible. Roughly 350 of Norway’s 5,000+ North Sea oil rigs collapsing over their weakened foundations and unleashing the slick of all slicks? Not so unbelievable. The North Sea isn’t the best of this new lot and leans a little too heavily on the Hollywood “Not Without My Son/Daughter/Wife/Husband/Dog” trope, but it will be a must for completists.
Burn, baby, burn
The North Sea begins with a brief history of Norway’s petroleum industry exploration, drilling and growth from the 1970s, picking up today. Oil engineer Stian (Henrik Bjelland) and his girlfriend Sofia (Kristine Kujath Thorp) are getting ready for work and planning a party in their quaint, wind-swept industry town. He goes off to work on the rig, she heads to work as operator of a deep sea drone designed to spot danger and gather data on the rigs. She works with Arthur (Rolf Kristian Larsen), her tech support and such a shy, awkward and sweet man he’s destined for death. Sofia and Arthur are summoned by the oil boss William Lie (Bjørn Floberg) for a special mission and compelled to sign an NDA. No good will come of this, and sure enough they stumble on an ugly truth: the wells are on a rift that is opening, fast, threatening to take them all down, and spill 350 times what Deepwater Horizon dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, and of course Stian is left behind during the rig evacuation. And of course Sofia is going to go get him herself.
The rescue and escape segment of The North Sea doesn’t bring anything really new to the table. There’s Stian’s sad (and creepy) son Odin who stoically waits for papa to come back. There’s Stian’s jovial-but-capable co-worker Ronny (Anders Baasmo), who has to make the hard decision to evacuate even though Stian isn’t back. There’s the steely energy minister Steiner Skagemo (Christoffer Staib) who wants absolutes – how many drills are we talking about shutting down, what’s the absolute longest this can take? What’s the absolute biggest the spill can get? Clearly, a government weasel.
More imperilled family
That guy in the front? Totally dead
But here’s the thing. The North Sea, refreshingly, doesn’t play black hat-white hat. Everyone is responsible for this mess and everyone has to chip in to clean it up. Lie and Skagemo are never set up as classic villains and Sofia isn’t a cut-and-dried hero. There’s no dodging reality, making the film the polar opposite of Deepwater Horizon and its tone deaf bluster and “indominable human spirit” garbage. In that film, BP alone was the clear bad guy, not the billions it serves. In that film, societies and economies built on oil are not a problem. The North Sea dares to float those ideas, and if anything, Andersen’s need to get back to the action derails an interesting drama about cultural culpability.
That said, Andersen’s idea of action is watching Sofia go get her man. I get it, I do. Without an “everyperson” proxy the story won’t connect, or relate, or resonate or some nonsense. Maybe, but there’s something to be said for straight-ahead catastrophe and wanton destruction in a disaster movie. Yes, I’m very sorry Sofia’s beauhunk is stuck on the rig, and yes, I’m sorry she’ll be saddled with his creepy, thousand-yard staring son if he dies (hey, maybe that’s the reason she was so desperate to find him?) but at an oil disaster movie originally called The Burning Sea I want some damn burning. When Andersen turns on the CGI it’s fantastic, and the teasers (the ship in the crevice!) just whet the appetite for more lunatic demolition. But it’s not to be. We have to watch Sofia reunite with the dude and make inappropriate kissy face. Can we just get to the next near-death crash or something? Thanks. — DEK