Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo, Onni Tommila
Intro:
Keep your expectations in check and you’ll have light fun with this bloody WWII western about a scarred man trying to Finnish what he started.
The western is a malleable and versatile genre, whose name is a bit of a misnomer. Despite beginning life in America telling stories of the “Wild West”, films using western iconography and style have taken place in disparate times and places like Feudal Japan, alien planets in the future, post apocalyptic Australia and, in the case of Sisu, Finland in the dying days of WWII.
Sisu tells the tale of aged former soldier Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), who wants nothing more than to be left alone to prospect for gold in the Lapland wilderness. Aatami is certainly aware of the violence still raging around him, but he stays out of it. His war is over. Or at least, it is until a group of Nazis decide to try their luck at robbing the old bloke and, in a scene that will likely have your jaw on the floor, he dramatically shows them the error of their ways. From there, Sisu is basically a cat and mouse tale with the increasingly incensed Hitler stans attempting to kill Aatami and he very much returning the favour. It’s a very bloody, splattery sort of western yarn with all the right ingredients to be a classic and yet despite this… something’s missing.
Director Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports) certainly knows how to cobble together a good looking film and the setting and imagery is striking. The scorched earth of Lapland, strewn with corpses and burnt-out houses, is appropriately apocalyptic and Aatami looks every bit the wasteland warrior that he’s meant to be. The action, however, despite having standout moments (like the knife through the head that you’ll probably have seen in the trailer) begins to skew a little generic and eventually feels downright Looney Tunes by the third act. Our quasi-immortal antagonist never seems in any real danger as he returns to life with such alacrity that it puts Jason Voorhees to shame. The tone, also, unevenly veers from gritty to goofy without ever properly settling into a consistent groove.
Sisu is well shot, (mostly) well directed and seeing Nazis get minced is always a good time. There is, however, something lacking here. A dash of inspiration, an emotional connection or perhaps any real sense of surprise. Sisu is a solid, dogged film that gets the job done, but it’s unlikely to linger in your mind. Keep your expectations in check and you’ll have light fun with this bloody WWII western about a scarred man trying to Finnish what he started.
