Zero Kelvin (1995) User Reviews

A highly watchable film

[eucalyptus9 · 7/10 · 26 May 2006]

After watching so many bad or mediocre movies lately, it was a pleasure to watch Zero Kelvin. I thought that the film worked on many levels -the disparity of the soft urbanite lifestyle to that of harsh, wilderness survival, the difficulties of human relationships in close proximity, the varying philosophies of love and intimacy. The film contained soft polemics about love, bitter misogynist tirades, and brutality tempered with affection tempered with harsh reality.

I first saw Stellan Skarsgard in "Breaking the Waves" and thought he was excellent. Then I caught in him a few ho-hum movies, and thought, yeah , just another B-grade actor. But it seems this kind of movie is his forte, he was great, as were the other two actors.

Excellent film.

Frigid, tense and claustrophobic, with a towering performance by Stellan Skarsgard

[Terrell-4 · 7/10 · 15 March 2008]

"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."

Superb thriller

[regnarghost · 8/10 · 1 March 2009]

Gard, a Norweigen poet signs up for for some trapper organisation in Greenland. Assumingly looking for adventures and possible material for his writing. In Greenland things slowly starts to turn ugly. His boss Randbaek is a unreasonable man that seems to have a need to bully someone. The only other person on the station is a calm scientist that only engages in a situation if he absolutely has to.

One of the best things about this film is the depth of Randebaks character. Despite him being really foul and wretched there is plenty of glimpses of a person with regret beneath this rubble. At times he and Gard accomplished some kind of frail peace and at tmies Randaek even seems to respect Gard. But before there, off-course, they have already exchanged to many blows...

Its a raw and powerful film. With the icy north creating a great backdrop for their escalating conflict. Wonderful atmosphere. Lots of humor. With all the actors turning in good performances ( and with Stellan Skarsgard being particularly awesome). The film is at heart a mini-dram (even though there ARE some action) and much of it takes place in a primitive cottage. In kinda reminded me of the likewise excellent Runnaway Train. Great entertaining thriller with a serious edge.

Not for the squeamish viewer .....

[merklekranz · 6/10 · 28 March 2012]

Yes, the movie is in Norwegian with English subtitles. It is not difficult to follow however, because the scenes are almost all dialog driven. With little action to distract, you will be somewhat at ease reading the text. Essentially this is a character study about the dynamic interaction between three isolated fur trappers played against the bleak Greenland landscape. There is a sympathetic poet writer, a gruff foul mouthed sailor, and a scientist. With the poet and sailor on a collision course, there is a claustrophobic catastrophe just waiting to happen. This film is not for the squeamish viewer, because of the human and animal brutality on display. - MERK

Rare pearl of ice

[artistico7 · 10/10 · 16 June 2002]

As usual, I went to see this movie having heard nothing of it, which normally works best since then I am able to see it on its own premises rather than being affected by reviews or previews, and even so I was quite surprised.

This film is nothing less than a well-played, well-shot psychological action/drama/thriller, and what's more, a Norwegian one even. Everything is highly believable, and the psychological development of the main character is a bit reminiscent of Espen Arnakke in Aksel Sandemose's Misery Harbour.

In "Misery Harbour", however, it is a development you are made aware of and pointed to look for, whereas in "Kjærlighetens Kjøtere", it gradually dawns on you what you are seeing, which makes this a much more powerful psychological narrative.

All in all, this is a rare pearl of ice, a gem of filmmaking that should not be left in its oyster, but held up to the light to be viewed in all its beauty by everyone who enjoy good movies.

Zero Kelvin

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 23 September 2017]

This Norwegian film was listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, but it was pretty much impossible to get my hands on the UK, either online or on DVD, I'm glad I did finally find how to watch it. Basically set in the 1920 Norway, in Oslo, Henrik Larsen (Gard B. Eidsvold) is an aspiring poet, he proposed marriage to his girlfriend Gertrude (Camilla Martens), but she is unsure if she want to commit to anyone. Larsen is hurt, so he decides he needs a change, so he finds a job working for a year as a trapper in East Greenland, there the temperature is zero kelvin (absolute zero). It is not a welcoming environment for the sensitive Larsen, used to the city life, he is teamed up with seemingly rough old sailor and fellow trapper Randbæk (Stellan Skarsgård), and scientist Jakob Holm (Bjørn Sundquist). The three men are trapped in a tiny hut, as the arctic winter sets in, a complex and intense love/hate relationship develops between Randbæk and Larsen. Holm remains mostly quiet, Larsen gets a lot of ribbing from his rough-hewn veteran trapper companion, but he and Randbæk are more similar to one another than either would like to admit. It comes to a point when Holm disappears, the two men have to decide to search for him, or remain sheltered and safe, but they are forced to leave when a fire accidentally causes the hut to burn down. The two men ride out by dog sled across the icy plains to find Holm, they do eventually find him, in a ravine and dead by hanging. The two men take the body, but get lost in the snow and end up going the wrong direction, across a large lake, the ice is not very thick, there is a clash as to whether to go across or round. The two men fight, but Larsen manages to subdue Randbæk and gains control of the dog sled, going across the lake, until he finds shelter in an abandoned ship. Larsen is surprised when Randbæk returns, but he simply sits back to have a talk, the two eventually go outside and have a physical fight, until Larsen kills Randbæk. In the end, Larsen returns to civilisation, where the authorities question what happened, after he tells the story and the bodies are discovered, but it seems there is not enough evidence to convict him, Larsen is released and allowed to reunite with Gertude. Also starring Paul-Ottar Haga as Officer, Johannes Joner as Company Man, Erik Øksnes as Captain and Lars Andreas Larssen as Judge. When I watched this film, there were no English subtitles available, only Norwegian, so it took me much longer to watch, just over five hours, but it was worth it. Skarsgård in his native language is great as the suspicious sailor man, as is the vulnerable Eidsvold, the story is interesting, and it is cool seeing the conflict play out in isolation amidst stunningly bleak arctic scenery of Svalbard, (if you can get your hands on it) it is a simple enjoyable drama. Good!

Much under-rated psychological drama/adventure

[Zedrik74 · 9/10 · 3 October 2001]

This film is not for everyone. It is a pretty dark and pessimistic story and leaves you thinking for a long time after you've watched it. I had to see it several times to really understand the difficult relationship between Randbaek and Larsen. All actors are superb and the pictures of the arctic landscape are stunning. More drama than adventure.

Excellent Character Study in the Ice Wastelands

[osloj · 10/10 · 10 March 2004]

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

*Plot and ending analyzed*

This is a powerful film that has only its beginning and end as a downside, it is a film that concentrates on the relationship between the Nietzschean Beyond Good and Evil duality with a bit of Hamsun thrown in.

The characters involved, a young philosopher/writer, who is innocent, a hard man, who represents corruption and depravity, and the scientist, who is a mixture of both of them with the added cognitive sense of reason, are all put into a fiery situation, namely a Sartrean "Hell", as they find themselves on a deserted island near the arctic, capturing skins for a company that is in Norway. At first they get along, but the stubborn man keeps bothering the poet and soon they are at odds with one another, eventually resulting in the destruction of one of them.

I didn't like the beginning because it was pretentious, and the end was too malicious, but an excellent film indeed for its descent into the schism of human understanding and contemplation.

A hybrid of thoughtfulness and action

[jaxonian · 10/10 · 5 January 2002]

As a squeamish woman who rather hates film violence, I have to say that Zero Kelvin was an exceptional film. Henrik Larsen is a struggling writer who wants "raw material" and subjects himself for a year with 2 experienced hunter-trappers. I agree with the other film reviewer that this is a "character study" but want to point out that it is not flat or dull by any means. There's plenty of action throughout. I don't think that Larsen's boss and nemesis, Randbaeck, is evil but "troubled", and this distinction gives a lot of credence to the true struggle and relationship between the two men.

A one-room, three-character study

[Varlaam · 5/10 · 30 April 1999]

Although that's not a bad thing, that is not exactly what the Kino Video release implies about the film. I was expecting some sort of exciting Arctic adventure story. Something fairly simple-minded, in other words.

Since expectation and actualization in this case are as different as snow and ice, it's a little difficult to assess the film fairly.

Suffice it to say that Stellan Skarsgård is unrecognizable as the foul-mouthed hunter. In Scandinavia, is he well known for his versatility? If he's not, he should be. Stellan is lousy in this film. I mean that literally. He's infested with lice. He's grubby. You would not want to be locked all winter in a claustrophobic room with him. His character is the heart of this drama.

This may not have been the Arctic adventure I was hoping for, but then it didn't leave me cold either.

The film was shot on the island of Spitzbergen (Svalbard in Norwegian), but I couldn't tell that I wasn't looking at Greenland.

The last credited performer, Tinkas Qorfiq, played the part of Jane, the dog, if I'm not mistaken.

Not for those bothered by animal cruelty

[Hopefoot · 5/10 · 27 March 2012]

I can't give a full review of this movie. I could only watch half. After the third rabbit shot with a gun, sled dogs being whipped, one rabbit having it's head bashed against a rock to kill it and a puppy being shot I was done. I don't know how much of all of that was real but all but the puppy being shot looked horribly real.

Which is sad. The story was intriguing, the characters interesting, the scenery breathtaking, I was enjoying everything else about the movie but my stomach couldn't handle finishing it for fear there would be more scenes of animal cruelty that I wouldn't be able to wipe from my memory.