Kon-Tiki (***)

I am almost new to the story of Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian who in 1947 led a small crew in a 5000-mile voyage across the Pacific in a balsa-wood raft. While vaguely familiar with the tale, I had not read Heyerdahl’s bestselling account nor seen the documentary that won the Oscar in 1951. What I liked about the story is that it’s an adventure, a nearly extinct genre that is distinct from the thriller, which accents suspense, or the action movie, which emphasizes movement. The adventure has some suspense and some action, but above all prizes wonder, a sense that the world is a place larger than the imagination.

The best part of this movie (whose directors, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, filmed English- and Norwegian-language versions simultaneously), is the beginning. Heyerdahl (Pål Sverre Hagen) is the sort of old-fashioned…adventurer (there is no better word) who remains irresistible, a more realistic Indiana Jones figure. Having spent a decade in Polynesia, he conceived of following the methods of the ancients to prove that South Americans were the ones to settle the South Sea Islands. Conveyed in pithy fashion, Heyerdahl’s optimistic determinism is winsome. Aboard ship (or raft), which is most of the movie, Heyerdahl/Hagen shares the screen with a bunch of other characters who don’t have much time to differentiate. On any movie like this, you’re sure to get scenes that involve weather, scenes that involve sea beasts, scenes that involve arguments among men, and plain old scenery. That’s all here, and while the photography is captivating (on land and sea), the rest seems as expected, and the ending is nothing, essentially the men laughing crazy laughter as they hit the beach. Do real men laugh crazy laughter in this way upon arriving safely after an arduous journey?


As feature films about long sea voyages go, I’ll go with the recent fiction story Life of Pi, or The African Queen, going back a lot further, but still, bring back the adventure movie, I say.

IMDb link

viewed 5/29/13 7:30 pm and reviewed 5/29/13

Life of Pi (***1/2)

Like Cast Away, much of this story is about a man stranded and alone, but instead of being American he is Indian, instead of an island he is on a small boat, and instead of a volleyball his only companion is a non-human predator called Richard Parker. Director Ang Lee and screenwriter David Magee’s (Finding Neverland) adaptation of the Yann Martel bestseller is faithful to the novel’s spirit, though it omits many details about how to survive alone on a lifeboat.

Perhaps unnecessarily, Lee preserves the novel’s structure — a grown man, in Canada, telling the story of his distant childhood in India, and then his perilous voyage, to a curious stranger — and adds frequently gorgeous visuals: shimmering skies, glowing seas, and pastel cityscapes suggestive of a fable. Pi’s is a story  “to make you believe in God,” the stranger has been told. Pi (played winsomely by newcomer Suraj Shjarma), the son of an atheist, himself subscribes to Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, and an element of spirituality runs through the movie, which can alternately be seen as a kind of magical realism. In some sense, both book and film draw a parallel between religious faith and storytelling, suggesting that the power of a good story is more important than certainty or literal truth. One need not agree to enjoy this existential story of adventure.

IMDb link

viewed 2/11/13 7:00 pm at Ritz East

Nim’s Island (***)

Abigail Breslin plays the title charter in this adapation of a kid novel by Wendy Orr. She’s a bright and capable eleven-year-old living alone with her scientist dad (Gerard Butler) on a remote island near Borneo. She’s in love with the Indiana Jones stories of Alex Rover. They’re so outlandish that even an eleven-year-old wouldn't believe they are true stories, as their agoraphobic author (Jodie Foster) is apparently passing them off as. (This is a foolish alteration from the book.) Dad’s sudden disappearance brings these characters, the girl and the timid author, together in ways that will be fairly predictable to older audience members, who may or may not care for the other fantasy element, Nim’s apparent ability to command the birds and lizards on the island, though apparently not her pet sea lion. What should be most appealing is Nim’s independence. She climbs a volcano, scares off potential tourist invaders, and even fixes the rooftop solar panel. Despite calling on a fictional dude for help, Nim becomes “the hero of her own story.” Kids should lap it up, and they’ll be amused by Alexandra the author’s imagined conversations with Alex the adventurer, also played by Butler.

IMDB link

viewed 4/5/08; reviewed 4/5 and 4/6/08