Remember this name: Aksel Hennie. If “Pioneer,” a mixed bag
of a conspiracy thriller, works at all, it largely does so because of him.
Hennie, now into his second decade as an actor in Norwegian film (he’s also
written and directed a feature) gives a spectacular performance as Petter, a
deep-sea diver on an oil rig who becomes something of a scapegoat after a mishap
that takes the life of his brother and leaves him searching for truth.
At the movie’s opening, Petter and brother Knut are all
diving bravado. Working with a team that includes some American oil-and-diving
consultants and laborers (portrayed by the likes of Wes Bentley and Stephen
Lang), Petter and Knut are excited to hit new depths as they work to create an
oil-money payday for themselves and their country’s economy. “That’s one small
step for a man,” Knut proclaims in English on reaching a particular plateau.
Their swagger doesn’t last long, and Petter, after failing to save his brother,
has to sit in a decompression chamber for an unconscionably long time. Once
he’s out, he’s convinced the accident occurred because his oxygen feed was cut.
He’s told that he’s mistaken, and he ought to accept his part in what happened
and let it lie. He won’t.
So begins a drama—inspired by actual events in the early
‘80s, as it happens—that writer/director Erik Skjoldbjærg says was inspired by
the likes of “The Conversation” and “Chinatown.” Those are high bars for
inspiration, and while Skjoldbjaerg, whose feature career started very strong
with the remade-by-Christopher-Nolan “Insomnia” in 1997, and veered of
disastrously with his English-language debut “Prozac Nation,” perhaps the most
catastrophic example of sophomore jinx in the history of the lively arts,
exhibits tight command over action and suspense in the movie’s opening scenes,
“Pioneer” falters as its cover-up scenario builds steam.
The director seems uncertain
of just where he wants the film’s emotional temperature to rest, and so
vacillates between a low key that verges on somnolent and brow-furrowed
on-the-nose intensity. Through it all, though, Hennie is the anchor. Initially
puffed-up and full of lean macho confidence, his portrayal of deflation, and
subsequent betrayal, is conveyed in largely physical terms, and the performance
is always entirely compelling. The movie has been bought by George Clooney’s
concern, Smokehouse Films, for a fully-English-language remake, and it’s a safe
bet that Clooney’s version will be more overtly political than this film. But
Clooney might do well to cast Hennie in ANY role in the picture, as it’s clear
he’s got the talent and magnetism to enhance whatever picture he turns up in.
And he’ll be turning up in a big one in 2015, playing a supporting role in Ridley
Scott’s now-filming adaptation of the highly praised sci-fi novel “The
Martian.”
