Valhalla Rising

From Nicholas Winding Refn, director of this year's exemplary DRIVE, came VALHALLA RISING, a tale mired in sometimes unnecessary stylistic gestures, and a quasi-historical starting point. In mountainous, foggy terrain, a hell-like world brews. An unnamed man with one eye is prisoner to a group of apparently nordic men. Some men dress in heavy garments, but this lowly slave is left only a few scraps of clothing. He is watched over and caged, taken around the country as a sort of dogfighting tough. He speaks not a word (a similarity between this feature and DRIVE), but his face is one of charisma, and Refn's direction allows for quick bursts of passionate violence from One-Eye (who is played by Mads Mikkelsen). One-Eye, and a young boy who exclusively has some control over him, eventually free themselves from the slave-owners, and venture out into hell in a series of "parts" specified by Refn. One-Eye and the boy eventually discover a few zealous crusaders (few in number) who lead them to a ghostly ship, which drifts off quite far from the desired destination, Jerusalem, and ends up in the New World. We have all heard stories (and seen movies) of New World discovery, but VALHALLA RISING does it in a unique fashion. One-Eye, our source for solid character, is himself baffled in his attempt to make sense of the New World. He discovers that even his own brand of brawn is not enough, and Refn's direction makes VALHALLA RISING a surprisingly slow, spooky film with a lot of great action. The film has its flaws: Refn is occasionally unwieldy with the cast-over look of his film, and it makes the movie seem "cast-over" just to be cast-over, and not for any real reason. Despite this, VALHALLA RISING is a good film.
Valhalla Rising: ★★★