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Arctic is the kind of film that doesn’t come along too often, but one which I love – a film with barely any cast members whatsoever, thus follows the anticipation about what can be made of such a situation.
In this case, it’s because Overgård (Mads Mikkelsen) is stranded out in the titular environment because his plane crashed, and he’s left with a dilemma: should he stay put, in the relative safety of the body of the downed aircraft, and in the hope someone chances across him, or should he brave it out into the unknown and take a trip in search of survival, which could also be a slow death?
Of course, if life allowed us to play out many different options to see which one was the right one, he’d have Piers Morgan tagging along for the ride, and if Piers became brown bread, it’d be no loss whatsoever.
It’s one of those films where the protagonist is going to have to be mega-resourceful if both he and his accidental companion are to survive… so, kinda similar to The Martian, albeit on planet Earth; and All Is Lost, but amongst the ice rather than in the sea.
With some glorious visuals, I was expecting a slow film, but while this is good, it is slower than I was expecting. It’s certainly worth a watch, but repeat viewings will be for die-hard Mads fans only.
Arctic is released today in cinemas, and available to pre-order for release on June 24th on Blu-ray, Amazon Video and DVD, as well as iTunes.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 98 minutes
Cinema Release date: May 10th 2019
Studio: Signature Entertainment
Format: 2.39:1 (Arri Alexa)
Rating: 7/10
Director: Joe Penna
Producers: Noah C Haeussner, Christopher Lemole, Tim Zajaros
Screenplay: Joe Penna, Ryan Morrison
Music: Joseph Trapanese
Cast:
Overgård: Mads Mikkelsen
Young Woman: María Thelma
Helicopter Pilot: Tintrinai Thikhasuk
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.