THE WAVE (BOLGEN)
(director: Roar Uthaug; screenwriters: John Kåre Raake/Harald Rosenløw-Eeg; cinematographer: John Cristian Rosenlund; editor: Christian Siebenherz; music: Magnus Beite; cast: Kristoffer Joner(Kristian), Bo Larsen (PhillipThomas), Ane Dahl Torp (Idun Karlsen), Jonas Hoff Oftebro (Sondre), Edith Haagenrud-Sande (Julia), Fridtjov Saheim(Arvid Øvrebø); Runtime: 105; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Martin Sundland, Are Heidenstrom; Magnolia; 2015-Norway-in Norwegian with English subtitles)
“The first Norwegian disaster film is not a disaster, it’s just Norway trying to go Hollywood.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The first Norwegian disaster film is not a disaster, it’s just Norway trying to go Hollywood. Director Roar Uthaug (“Cold Prey”/”Escape”) enlivens the catastrophe with family melodramatic rescues and CGI effects of the deadly rockslide. It’s written by John Kåre Raake and Harald Rosenløw with an earnestness for family values and reminders of America’s disaster films of the 1970s.In the mountain of Norway’s Sunnmore region of Geiranger, a scenic tourist spot, good guy Norwegian geologist (Kristoffer Joner) and his nuclear family of hotel manager wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp), skateboarding teen son Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) and cutey pie young daughter Julia (Edith Haagenrud-Sande), fight for survival when a massive landslide causes a 250-foot tidal wave. After years working in the remote mountain top observatory, with a team of observers, at the site of mountain Akerneset overlooking the picturesque small town village, the always threatening to collapse into the fjord mountain erupts in a cataclysm. It happens on the day Kristian was to move to the city and take a job with the oil industry. With ten minutes to flee the danger and reach high ground, the tsunami hits and destroys everything in its path. Since the family is apart at the time of the disaster, both parents act heroically to save the children and each other. All the difficult rescue efforts successfully keep things tense.
REVIEWED ON 11/8/2016 GRADE: B