Sisu
Starring Jorma Tommila, Askel Hennie and Mimosa Willamo
Rated MA15+
3.5/5
After Barbie and Oppenheimer – both deep in their own way – let’s wind down with Sisu, a simple, raw, savagely entertaining war action movie.
In 1944, Aatami (Jorma Tommila), a Finnish veteran commando, lives alone digging for gold in the Lapland wilderness. When a Nazi platoon steals his gold, Aatami launches a one-man war to reclaim his prize.
“Sisu” is a Finnish term for stoic determination and courage in the face of extreme adversity, and Sisu the film is a lean, gory, frequently funny thrill-ride about vengeance and survival.
Tommila is a fierce lead of few words, and Askel Hennie plays Helldorf, an SS platoon leader who regards Aatami with an intriguing combination of hatred, fear and respect. The dramatic goals for hero and villain are crystal-clear – reclaim his gold, and escape Finland (respectively) – and their paths cross through a long chain of corpses and Aatami defying the odds. Sisu has absurd fun with its visceral, cleverly-staged kills, and since Nazis are a historical epitome of evil, why not have fun slaughtering them?
Sisu’s bleak cinematography and barren landscapes resemble a Western, and the film’s style has tinges of Tarantino in its lurid violence, rock-heavy score, narrative chapters and a band of plucky female supporting characters who would feel right at home in Death Proof.
Sisu’s one major flaw is the poorly-framed, too-close camerawork in the hand-to-hand fight scenes. Some moments stretch credibility even for the film’s heightened reality, and Aatami is a furious force of nature in some scenes but strangely fragile in others, which dilutes the tension slightly.
An uncomplicated, ultraviolent and very fun action movie, Sisu is playing in select Victorian cinemas.
Seth Lukas Hynes
