movie, and the result is a seance that doesn’t
quite spellbind, despite a sincere effort to.
This could be chalked up to the dictates of a
bigger budget production and the need to
reach a wider audience, or an instinct of the
movies that seems to count on howling, barking
and shouting to grasp something primal that it
can’t quite summon. The scenes with Amleth’s
mother, with a fiery Kidman, perhaps comes too
late in a film that, after a long journey, begins to
more dramatically tug at the masculine myth it’s
predicated on. Amleth’s vows aren’t an oath but
a curse, thus proving another age-old adage:
Never trust Willem Dafoe.
“The Northman,” a Focus Features release
in theaters, is rated R by the Motion Picture
Association of America for strong bloody
violence, some sexual content and nudity.
Running time: 137 minutes. Two and a half stars
out of four.