Review of The Northman (2022) by Dhreviews — 30 Apr 2022

Robert Eggers continues to prove his talents this film. His third feature overall, The Northman evokes a classic Norse epic at grandoise scale. Written by Eggers himself and the well known Sugarcubes alum, poet and lyricist Sjon, the story of the Northman in language and visual content comes across as a tale straight out of the Edda.

The films epic scale and visceral storytelling comes across equally as powerfully within its cinematography, mastered by a returning Jarin Blaschke who joined Eggers on his previous film, The Lighthouse.

Norse themes and motifs come alive in brilliant and traditional fashion thanks to a mighty score by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough. Acting is also one of the films many triumphs, as Alexander Skarsgard, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, and Claes Bang all bring their A-Game to this film.

Eggers has proven to be an exciting new voice in Hollywood and thus far his films have held few missteps. If anything relatively negative comes from this third outing of his, it's that the film's a slow burn may not be some viewers cup of tea, and even for me (a large fan of his), the runtime lingers right on the edge of being a tad overlong.

It's ending is also relatively abrupt considering the pacing of the film, which left me maybe yearning for a more resounding and drawn out finish. Still, the Northman is yet another well fletched arrow in this inspiring directors quiver, and Eggers continues to carve a strong path into the filmsphere.