KON-TIKI – The Review

With the season of Summer blockbusters already in full swing here in the middle of May, you may have a tough time recalling the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film from the 85th Academy Awards ceremony way back in February. We here at the website have gotten to see the winner, AMOUR, and two other nominees, NO and A ROYAL AFFAIR (WAR WITCH has yet to screen in our neck-of-the-woods). Now we finally get to see the entry from Norway, KON-TIKI. And it turns out that this is the perfect time for this film, for this isn’t a somber, human drama like Haneke’s intimate portrait, but a rollicking, edge-of-your-seat adventure. Yes, it is a true story set in the past like NO and AFFAIR, but after the heroes set out to sea, it feels as though their exploits could be happening right now. The story of the voyage did win a 1951 Oscar for Best Feature Documentary, so it’s high time this nautical tale was given the dramatic treatment for the back story of the men at sea. Let’s set sail on one of history’s most famous rafts.

Ahoy, KON-TIKI!

We first encounter young Thor Heyerdahl as a young lad crashing through a frozen lake, nearly drowning in the frigid waters. Several decades later, the 1940’s to be exact, twenty-something Thor (Pal Sverre Hagen) is a scientific researcher in Polynesia with his lovely bride Liv (Agnes Kittelsen). Something puzzles Thor. One of his books states that pineapples are indigenous to Peru. So why are they abundant  on the island, thousands of miles away? He believes that in pre-Columbian Peru sailors used the ocean currents to travel west to the tropical isle. The only way to prove this is to make the journey utilizing the materials that would’ve been available so many years ago. In 1946 he travels to New York City in order to acquire funding from book publishers and exploration magazines such as National Geographic. The editors believe such a trip would be a fatal disaster. Even members of the Manhattan version of The Explorers Club scoff at this notion. But one man takes notice.Herman Watzinger (Anders Baasmo Christiansen) sees Thor showing a drawing of the raft to a couple of skeptical sailors at a pub. Turns out Herman is a fellow Norwegian, an engineer, reduced to selling refrigerators in the US. He makes some adjustments to the design and they soon secure funding from the government of Peru. The two men gather up a crew of fellow Norwegians (and a Swede), build a raft, and set out to re-create the ancient voyage  to Polynesia before tropical storm season begins while battling the elements, some hungry sharks, and often themselves (over a hundred days on a raft can make anybody quite testy).

Directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg grab us right from the opening frames with the tense frozen pond sequence which illustrates an important fact: Thor Heyerdahl never learned how to swim! Amazing, for a man so interested in the sea. The NYC sequence has a nice nostalgic glow. It looks as though the streets were just swept of confetti after the big World War II victory celebrations. The film really kicks in with the voyage itself. The sea is a beautiful, tranquil place much like many scenes in LIFE OF PI (we even get a few flying fish on deck). But the ocean soon shows her fury in a violent storm. The film makers cut to underwater shots of miles of rope straining to hold together the massive logs of the raft to heighten the tension. Then there’s the swarming schools of shark in an amazing scene that will have you digging your fingers into the arm rests. You’ll be asking whether the finned killers are real or are they expertly made puppets or CGI. We also get a scene of the monotony as the men bake in the sun as the raft barely seems to move. They’ve got an emergency motor, but using it would invalidate the whole trek. Oh, and they’ve got a radio too, but the signal can’t get past the mountains. The actors are quite convincing as they strain to perform their duties. As a modern viewer I kept wondering what kind of lotion they could use to protect their pale Nordic flesh (were there SBFs back then?). As the time passes I did have a tough time telling them apart since they all grow thick, coarse beards and dash about only in swim trunks. Even when they spot land, danger still lays ahead in getting past the jagged rocks surrounding the shore. KON-TIKI is far from a dry history lesson. It’s a gripping action-adventure thriller headed by a fellow named Thor who’s perhaps even braver than the hammer-wielding Marvel superhero. And be sure and stick around to find out the amazing things these men accomplished after this incredible voyage. What a crew and what a film!

4.5 Out of 5 Stars

KON-TIKI screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark Theatres’ Plaza Frontenac Cinemas