Bølgen [The Wave] (2015)

(In French, On TV, March 2020) With the ever-lower costs of digital special effects, it’s now possible for creators outside Hollywood to dream big and tackle genres that previously required substantial budgets. Norway’s The Wave localizes the disaster to a small community in a Norwegian fjord—and draws upon historical precedent to portray what happens when an avalanche creates a hundred-meter wave trashing the inside of the fjord, including roads, houses and a hotel. The filmmakers behind the film have clearly taken notes from Hollywood—the techno-thrillerish accumulation of technical details helps establish the credibility of the film, and then it’s off to the races with a spectacular disaster, the catastrophic after-effects of the dangers, and how a family improbably pulls through the aftermath to survive. The Wave is slick, enjoyable, crowd-pleasing work from director Roar Uthaug: it clearly draws upon the time-tested disaster movie formula and gives it a strong Norwegian spin to make it even more interesting. Kristoffer Joner and Ane Dahl Torp are both good leads, preserving their ordinary-people likability in the face of impossible odds. The result is successful—so much so that, in even finer Hollywood homage, the filmmakers have already turned in a 2018 sequel (Skjelvet aka The Quake) about a major Earthquake destroying much of Oslo, and featuring the same family of protagonists.