Friday, March 29, 2024

Movie Review: ‘Sisu’ is a Return to Fun Grindhouse Action


Director: Jalmari Helander

Writer: Jalmari Helander

Stars: Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo

Synopsis: When an ex-soldier who discovers gold in the Lapland wilderness tries to take the loot into the city, Nazi soldiers led by a brutal SS officer battle him.


Sisu opens up with a straightforward message for its audience: The Finnish word “sisu” has no direct translation. However, it can be boiled down to a simple, universal idea. “Sisu” is “a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds.” And very quickly, writer/director Jalmari Helander makes abundantly clear to the audience exactly what somebody who embodies that would look like. In the case of Sisu, the individual in question is Aatami, a prospector. With his adorable dog and horse as companions, he’s making his way across Northern Finland looking for gold during the final days of World War II. Lucky for him, he finds it rather quickly in the film’s opening chapter (the first of seven). Yet this unsuspecting stranger seems to be more than meets the eye. If the brutal scars and wounds across his body wasn’t a big enough clue, the description given to Aatami by a Nazi general should be more than clear: “He’s one mean motherfucker you don’t want to mess with.”

The fact of the matter is, in a grindhouse action film like this, broad thematic strokes are usually the most effective. In the case of Sisu, it takes the path of least resistance, all while throwing Aatami in a path exclusively filled with it. Turning a convoy of Nazis into cinematic cannon fodder is more than enough to get an audience cheering, but we also want to see Aatami succeed in securing his gold as much as we want to see Nazis blown to smithereens. Aatami is a man of few words and even less emotion, but what little we do receive is enough. As the reflection of his gold shimmers on his forehead, the roar of planes overhead reminds us, and him, that there’s still a long way home. So when he gets stopped by a small patrol and his face starts to churn into knots, the audience becomes aware almost immediately that this is only going to go down one way.

From there, the next 75 minutes of Sisu are the type that, for the most part, will always work well should the team behind it be all in. This is the type of film that begs the question: why aren’t we receiving more grindhouse films in the first place? They don’t even need to be as gory as Sisu is if you would like to market the film to larger audiences. Films like The Book of Eli or, more recently, the John Wick franchise, take on a very simple premise. Here is a man who is seemingly immortal, and he has a specific goal in mind. Against all odds, before the credits roll, the character will have achieved it. As an audience member, there’s an innate sense of companionship with the goal of a character like that. To see somebody basically kick into overdrive for the length of a film is wholly entertaining, and Sisu takes that basic premise to the utmost extreme. By the time the aptly titled sixth chapter rolls around (some jokes are best saved for the theater), the audience will have long been hooting and hollering for Aatami, also known as, “The Immortal”. Sisu is unadulterated, grindhouse fun, and I for one hope we see more films like it very soon.

Grade: C+

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