"Now you'll become one of the unhappy." These are among the last words Randbaek has for Henrik Larsen as they crouch on the icy deck of a wrecked boat cast up on the Northern Greenland coast. What a curious and fascinating psychological thriller this is, although "thriller" gives a wrong impression. What's been happening is the taunting aggression, the truces and betrayals that Randbaek (Stellan Skarsgard), a crude, tough trapper, has been inflicting on Larsen (Gard Eidsvold), a young writer who signed up for an adventure and got more than he bargained for.
Zero Kelvin takes place in the mid-Twenties. Larsen is a happy-go-lucky poet in Oslo who hasn't published anything. He has a girlfriend who wants to keep their love free and doesn't need such things as engagements. He signs up to spend a year in Greenland hunting and trapping. Of course, he'll keep a notebook and a letter from his girl. He winds up in a desolate, frigid wooden shack he shares with Randbaek, the trapping foreman, and one other trapper, Holm (Bjorn Sunquist). The wind howls and so do the sled dogs. There's nothing to see except shale beaches, snow and ice, and the endless cold, gray days. There's nothing to do except work, kill seals, shoot rabbits for food, skin animals, butcher the meat, and huddle around an oil stove at night. Randbaek has no patience with college boys or educated youngsters. He's capable, violent, raw and obscene. Henrik learns to pull his own weight, but it isn't easy. Randbaek's attitude toward Henrik gets worse. His descriptions of love to Henrik, and of making love to Henrik's girlfriend, are not for the faint-hearted. Randbaek may be a man to have along if your survival depends on it, but if Randbaek's survival depends on you not surviving, Randbaek won't think twice. Holm keeps his own counsel. Randbaek sees Holm as a friend, but Holm, something of a scientist, a sharpshooter, seldom takes sides. If the wooden shack they all share, sometimes with lice, seems close quarters, it quickly becomes claustrophobic. Eventually Holm has had enough. And Randbaek and Henrik sort things out in a way that is tough-minded and brutal. Henrik eventually returns to his girl. An engagement may happen. But Henrik is not the happy-go-lucky young poet we met earlier.
The movie is fascinating for several reasons. First, the icy desolation of the location chills your bones. Randbaek's taunting games, which really aren't so much games as a basic part of Randbaek's deeply unhappy emotional makeup, seem even more unpleasant because there's no place to escape them. Second, as time goes by and as we see Henrik's competence increase, we expect some sort of confrontation...and we aren't looking forward to it. Randbaek is a bulky brute of a man. It won't matter how righteous Henrik's case might be; this isn't a movie where the smaller guy would win. Third, you can't keep your eyes off the actors; they're that good. Stellan Skarsgard in particular gives a monumental performance as Randbaek. It's not that he's almost unrecognizable beneath all the greasy hair. Skarsgard has managed to create an utterly repellant, unpredictable man, yet a man we wind up feeling a little sorry for. "Are you so much better than me?" he shouts at Henrik, and a part of us wants to shout back, "No."
Zero Kelvin takes place in the mid-Twenties. Larsen is a happy-go-lucky poet in Oslo who hasn't published anything. He has a girlfriend who wants to keep their love free and doesn't need such things as engagements. He signs up to spend a year in Greenland hunting and trapping. Of course, he'll keep a notebook and a letter from his girl. He winds up in a desolate, frigid wooden shack he shares with Randbaek, the trapping foreman, and one other trapper, Holm (Bjorn Sunquist). The wind howls and so do the sled dogs. There's nothing to see except shale beaches, snow and ice, and the endless cold, gray days. There's nothing to do except work, kill seals, shoot rabbits for food, skin animals, butcher the meat, and huddle around an oil stove at night. Randbaek has no patience with college boys or educated youngsters. He's capable, violent, raw and obscene. Henrik learns to pull his own weight, but it isn't easy. Randbaek's attitude toward Henrik gets worse. His descriptions of love to Henrik, and of making love to Henrik's girlfriend, are not for the faint-hearted. Randbaek may be a man to have along if your survival depends on it, but if Randbaek's survival depends on you not surviving, Randbaek won't think twice. Holm keeps his own counsel. Randbaek sees Holm as a friend, but Holm, something of a scientist, a sharpshooter, seldom takes sides. If the wooden shack they all share, sometimes with lice, seems close quarters, it quickly becomes claustrophobic. Eventually Holm has had enough. And Randbaek and Henrik sort things out in a way that is tough-minded and brutal. Henrik eventually returns to his girl. An engagement may happen. But Henrik is not the happy-go-lucky young poet we met earlier.
The movie is fascinating for several reasons. First, the icy desolation of the location chills your bones. Randbaek's taunting games, which really aren't so much games as a basic part of Randbaek's deeply unhappy emotional makeup, seem even more unpleasant because there's no place to escape them. Second, as time goes by and as we see Henrik's competence increase, we expect some sort of confrontation...and we aren't looking forward to it. Randbaek is a bulky brute of a man. It won't matter how righteous Henrik's case might be; this isn't a movie where the smaller guy would win. Third, you can't keep your eyes off the actors; they're that good. Stellan Skarsgard in particular gives a monumental performance as Randbaek. It's not that he's almost unrecognizable beneath all the greasy hair. Skarsgard has managed to create an utterly repellant, unpredictable man, yet a man we wind up feeling a little sorry for. "Are you so much better than me?" he shouts at Henrik, and a part of us wants to shout back, "No."