Saw this movie yesterday at colosseum in Oslo. It was the pre-premiere with all the cast and war veterans attending. To say the least it was pretty easy getting carried away because of the atmosphere but i will at least try to give a balanced review.
The first thing that grabs your attention is the production values, for a norwegian movie this one looks great. Its really great to see that norwegian movies have made leaps and bounds during the recent years in special effects. It sure as hell looks authentic, and it feels that way to. Both visuals and atmosphere is highly successful. Also the score is highly satisfying, and complements the visual style perfectly.
Despite these strengths, there are some negative things to point out about Max manus. Much of the acting is stale, I don't know what it is. But i think some of these actors have acted better before. It could be that the characters are somewhat hard to project considering that these where real people, and they have to take into account on how they where, i don't know, but somethings not right. Aksel Hennies acting ranges from mediocre to very good during the movie. Hes really good at the emotional scenes, but when he is supposed to be more neutral it feels like he is holding back. Now Ken Duken on the other hand, gives a perfect performance, its kind of amazing how he delivers the norwegian lines better than the norwegian actors. I haven't seen this guy before, but he seems to have tons of talent. (The scene in the cell is pretty good from both Aksel and Ken).
The movie as a whole is pretty entertaining and informative, its nice to learn about what happened back in WWII. And its nice to see the past of some of our most decorated war heroes. all in all i think it would have benefited the movie to have some more tight pacing and more solid acting. It has some really good parts, but the complete package doesn't really satisfy as much as i would have hoped to.
The first thing that grabs your attention is the production values, for a norwegian movie this one looks great. Its really great to see that norwegian movies have made leaps and bounds during the recent years in special effects. It sure as hell looks authentic, and it feels that way to. Both visuals and atmosphere is highly successful. Also the score is highly satisfying, and complements the visual style perfectly.
Despite these strengths, there are some negative things to point out about Max manus. Much of the acting is stale, I don't know what it is. But i think some of these actors have acted better before. It could be that the characters are somewhat hard to project considering that these where real people, and they have to take into account on how they where, i don't know, but somethings not right. Aksel Hennies acting ranges from mediocre to very good during the movie. Hes really good at the emotional scenes, but when he is supposed to be more neutral it feels like he is holding back. Now Ken Duken on the other hand, gives a perfect performance, its kind of amazing how he delivers the norwegian lines better than the norwegian actors. I haven't seen this guy before, but he seems to have tons of talent. (The scene in the cell is pretty good from both Aksel and Ken).
The movie as a whole is pretty entertaining and informative, its nice to learn about what happened back in WWII. And its nice to see the past of some of our most decorated war heroes. all in all i think it would have benefited the movie to have some more tight pacing and more solid acting. It has some really good parts, but the complete package doesn't really satisfy as much as i would have hoped to.