Movie Review - The Wave

The Wave (Bølgen) (2016)

Starring Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, and Edith Haagenrud-Sande

Directed by Roar Uthaug

***This films currently streaming on Netflix***

The lovely town of Geiranger, Norway, is nestled on the base of a beautiful mountainous coastline, and in the early 1900s they experienced a horrible rock avalanche that resulted in homes being devastated not only by falling rocks, but by a tidal wave that formed as the rocks hit the sea.  Patriarch Kristian Elkjord (Kristoffer Joner) is a geologist preparing to move his family from the tourist destination town of Geiranger to Stavenger for a job opportunity, but on his final day on the job, Kristian notices some anomalies in the rock movement.  Pleas to evacuate the town fall on deaf ears when his boss refuses to believe there is an issue, but that evening chaos strikes as the cliffs begin to crumble and the town has only ten minutes to evacuate to higher ground.  Kristian must do all that he can to keep his wife Idun (Ane Dahl Torp) and his two children (Jonas Hoff Oftebro and Edith Haagenrud-Sande) out of harm's way.

A Norwegian disaster flick, The Wave has all the trappings of the stereotypical tropes of the genre, but it nicely keeps the scope and gravity of the event confined to that of the Eikjord family developing a quartet of characters who the viewer learns more about than typical inhabitants of films of this ilk.  Kristoffer Jones and Ane Dahl Torp as the strong-willed father and mother carry the film in their separate storylines -- the couple are separated as is wont in disaster flics like these and must do what they can to reunite safely -- and we in the audience want nothing more than for the couple to be able to reunite.  While the film would never win any awards for its special effects, they're certainly nothing to scoff at either, proving more than capable in their low budget ways.  No one will mistake The Wave for any high art or anything more than a fun diversion, but it's better than its American genre counterparts like The Day After Tomorrow or San Andreas for sure.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-