The Wave (2015 film)

The Wave

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Roar Uthaug
Produced by Are Heidenstorm
Written by
  • John Kåre Raake
  • Harald Rosenløw-Eeg
Starring Kristoffer Joner
Music by Magnus Beite
Cinematography John Christian Rosenlund
Edited by Christian Siebenherz
Production
company
Distributed by Nordisk Filmdistribusjon
Release dates
  • 14 September 2015 (2015-09-14) (TIFF)
  • 28 August 2015 (2015-08-28) (Norway)
Running time
 105 minutes[1]
Country Norway
Language Norwegian
Budget US$6–6.5 million[2][3]
Box office US$11.6 million[4]

The Wave (Norwegian: Bølgen) is a 2015 Norwegian catastrophe drama film[5] directed by Roar Uthaug. It was Norway's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.[6][7][8]

Plot

A small Norwegian village, called Geiranger, is threatened when a huge mass of rock tumbles into a fjord, setting off a huge 300 foot tsunami. With only ten minutes to escape the approaching catastrophe, the villagers must rush to the mountains before the wave engulfs them all.[2][9]

Cast

Production

Development

Filming took place in Geiranger, a small tourist town just below Åkerneset.[10]

Norway is a rockslide prone area and The Wave is based on a rock-slide tsunami incident which destroyed the village of Tafjord on 7 April 1934, killing 40 people.[2] Prior to that in 1905, a similar incident triggered a tsunami killing 60 people, and 31 years later, another 74 lost their lives.[11] Uthaug has always been a fan of Hollywood disaster films such as Twister and Armageddon and had long wanted to make a disaster film in Norway.[2] According to him the challenge was to combine the elements of the American genre film with the reality of the situation in Norway.[2]

All the actors performed their own stunts, something the director said was "utterly nerve-racking." And for a climatic scene, in which Joner tries to rescue his family from a flooded hotel, he trained with free-diving instructors to be able to hold his breath for three minutes underwater.[2]

Release

The Wave had its international premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 16 September 2015.[12]

Box office

The film sold around 800,000 tickets in Norway,[2] and grossed a total of US$8.2 million at the Norwegian box office becoming the highest grossing film of 2015 in Norway.[13]

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise aimed at the performances of the cast (mostly the two protagonists), cinematography, score and visual effects.[9][10] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "an exotic edge-of-seater [that] plays on the beauty and terror of nature" and "a thrilling ride",[3] while chief international film critic Peter Debruge of Variety described it as "an equally impressive tsunami-peril thriller."[9]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 80% "Certified Fresh" score based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's consensus states: "Well-acted and blessed with a refreshingly humanistic focus, The Wave is a disaster film that makes uncommonly smart use of disaster film clichés."[14] Metacritic reports a 68 out of 100 rating based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15]

The special effects were lauded by critics, receiving favorable comparison with those of Hollywood.[9] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter called them "convincingly terrifying and involving."[3] Collider.com reviewed, "...a major technical achievement that will hopefully make Hollywood reconsider the tendency to go bigger and bigger to the point of excess."[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Wave (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 15 April 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Scott Roxborough (December 3, 2015). "Foreign-Language Oscar Spotlight: Norway's Disaster Epic 'The Wave'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Deborah Young (12 September 2015). "'The Wave': TIFF Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "The Wave (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "Her kommer monsterbølgen inn mot Geiranger". Dagbladet. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  6. ↑ ""Bølgen" er Norges Oscar-kandidat". NRK. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "Norway pins Oscar hopes on ‘The Wave’". News in English. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (3 September 2015). "Oscars: Norway Picks 'The Wave' for Foreign-Language Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Peter Debruge (25 September 2015). "Film Review: ‘The Wave’". Variety. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 Perri Nemiroff (17 September 2015). "‘The Wave’ Review: Puts Hollywood Disaster Movies to Shame". Collider.com. (Complex). Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  11. ↑ David Nikel. "The Wave: Norway's First Disaster Movie". Lifeinnorway. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  12. ↑ Nancy Tartaglione (16 September 2015). "Magnolia Rides ‘The Wave’; Acquires U.S. On Norway’s Smash Disaster Pic – Toronto". Deadline.com. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  13. ↑ Scott Roxborough (22 December 2015). "International Box Office: The Big Local-Language Hits of 2015". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  14. ↑ "The Wave (Bolgen) (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  15. ↑ "The Wave reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 19 April 2016.

External links

  1. REDIRECTTemplate:Metacritic film
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