By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
You think it’s cold? You think you are suffering? When you watch 53-year-old Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen’s grimly harrowing man vs. nature “Arctic” struggle, whatever you are experiencing pales in comparison.
Mikkelson plays Overgard, a researcher/explorer whose tiny orange-and-white plane crashed in a frozen wasteland. Resourceful, he’s been living in the cabin of that plane for weeks, if not months, sustained by raw fish that he’s pulled from beneath the ice.
Our first sight of him is trudging around, digging, scraping, grunting and clearing a series of paths in the snow; they turns out to form a large, black SOS sign in the white tundra, hopefully visible from the sky above. In addition to that, he spends hours manually cranking a transmitter, signaling for rescue.
When a helicopter hovers nearby, Overgard is ecstatic — until the ferociously howling polar wind causes it to crash. The only survivor is a badly injured woman (Icelandic actress Maria Thelma Smaradottir), the co-pilot whom Overgard is determined to save.
She’s in a state of shock, so Overgard scavenges what he can — a functional cigarette lighter, camper stove, instant ramen, maps and flares — then carries her to his makeshift shelter, where he capably closes a bleeding gash in her belly with a staple gun.
Soon, Overgard realizes that cautiously remaining in his downed plane is futile, so he uses a sled to courageously transport the comatose woman across the vast wilderness, seeking refuge in a cave or quickly constructed igloo. It’s an arduous, perilous trek.
A prowling polar bear is a continuous adversary, first stealing stoic Overgard’s stash of arctic trout, then threatening their lives.
Shot in Iceland, it’s coscripted by film editor Ryan Morrison and Brazilian-born director Joe Penna with spectacular cinematography by Tomas Orn Tomasson — and, perhaps, it can trace its ancestry to J.C. Chandor’s 2013 “All is Lost,” starring Robert Redford.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Arctic” is a stark, shivering 7, an icy survival story.
Set in the (fictional) Colorado skiing community of Kehoe, “Cold Pursuit” introduces Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) who drives a gigantic snowplow, consistently clearing the roads, which makes him the town’s highly respected “Citizen of the Year.”
But when his son Kyle (Micheal Richardson), an airport baggage handle, is killed by drug smugglers, his death is blamed on a heroin overdose. (FYI: Micheal is Neeson’s real-life son with the late Natasha Richardson.)
Disbelieving Coxman vows revenge, methodically eliminating one suspect after another until he reaches the real culprit, a Denver-based drug lord, Trevor “Viking” Calcote (Tom Bateman), who is battling his ex-wife (Julia Jones) for custody of their sensitive young son (Nicholas Holmes).
Continuing the carnage, there’s a turf battle between Viking’s gang of thugs and a rival band of Native-American coke traffickers, headed by White Bull (Tom Jackson), along with the appearance of a hit man known as “The Eskimo.” And after each grisly, graphic demise, there’s the victim’s “in memoriam” card, adorned with a crucifix.
In a thankless role, Laura Dern plays Coxman’s weed-smoking wife Grace, while Emmy Rossum and John Doman are a couple of local cops, ill-equipped to handle the rapidly mounting count of homicide cases. William Forsythe is a scene-stealer as Coxman’s black-sheep brother.
Liam Neeson has built a stalwart vigilante reputation, quoting a line from the film: “I picked a good road and stayed on it.”
Adapted from “In Order of Disappearance,” a 2014 Norwegian thriller, its original director, Hans Petter Moland worked with Frank Baldwin to revise Kim Fupz Aakeson’s simplistic script, injecting moments of mordant humor, while cinematographer Philip Ogaard highlights the icy landscape.
On the Granger Gauge, “Cold Pursuit” is a stony, somber 6 — not exactly “Taken” with a snowplow.
Hollywood’s current penchant for gender-flipping — like “Ghostbusters” (2016) and “Oceans 8” (2018) — continues with “What Men Want,” a raunchy remake of Nancy Meyers’ romantic comedy “What Women Want” (2000), starring Mel Gibson.
Hardworking Ali Davis (Taraji P. Henson) is a selfish, ambitious, Atlanta-based sports agent who is passed over for a long-overdue promotion to partner by her chauvinistic boss (Brian Bosworth), who points out that, although she reps Serena Williams, none of her clients is from the “big three” sports leagues: NBA, NFL and MLB.
“You don’t connect well with men,” he informs her. “Stay in your lane.”
Determined to push through his sexist prejudice, ruthlessly competitive Ali vows to sign rising young basketball star, Georgia Tech player Jamal Berry (Shane Paul McGhie).
Problem is: Jamal’s overbearing dad, Joe “Dolla” Berry (Tracy Morgan), doesn’t trust a woman without a family, so Ali introduces her latest one-night-stand, widowed single father Will (Aldis Hodge), as her husband, claiming his 6-year-old son, Ben (Auston Jon Moore), as her own.
Meanwhile at a friend’s wild bachelorette party, Ali meets Sister (Erykah Badu), a weed-hustling psychic who feeds her a bitter-tasting brew. That spiked tea, coupled with a concussion Ali suffers, somehow endows her with the supernatural ability to read men’s minds.
With her devoted assistant, Brandon (Josh Brener), by her side, Ali ferociously outsmarts her colleagues (Max Greenfield, Jason Jones) to gain leverage with Jamal.
At the same time, insensitive Ali supposedly experiences an emotional transformation, learning to share and reevaluate how she relates to family and friends.
Superficially scripted by Tina Gordon, Peter Hyuck and Alex Gregory, and directed like a raucous sex farce by Adam Shankman (“Hairspray”), it’s definitely reflective of the pop culture #MeToo movement and includes cameos from authentic sports figures like Mark Cuban, Grant Hill, Shaquille O’Neal and Devonta Freeman.
On the Granger Gauge, “What Men Want” is a flimsy 5, despite Taraji P. Henson’s exuberant performance.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
