Movie Review: Sisu

Okay. So, it’s a Dollars-trilogy style Western, that just so happens to be set in Finland in 1944. Our leading man is a Korpi (Jorma Tormilla), a one-time legendary one-man killing machine for the Finnish army turned rural prospector. Living a solitary life with his dog and his horse, he runs into a group of Nazis fleeing to Norway, and winds up in a Looney Tunes-esque battle for his fortune in gold. With me? No? Good. Let’s talk about Sisu.

Sisu, the latest movie from Jalmari Herlander (the man behind one of the best alternative Christmas movies ever, Rare Exports), is a difficult movie to sell. I wasn’t really sure what to expect walking into it, apart from the great action promised in the trailer, but let me tell you: Sisu might just be the best film of the year so far, and I need to talk about why.

Is it ridiculous? Utterly, completely. It’s got the feel of a George Miller film at times, the action fantastically inventive and unrelentingly surprising, limbs flying in every direction and kills coming faster than you can count them. The whole film has the feel of someone gleefully re-telling the story of this epic guy they once knew in the pub after a few drinks., and yeah, maybe they’re exaggerating a little sometimes, but it’s so damn entertaining, you can’t help but be caught up in it. Given Korpi’s legendary status, this approach actually works really well, and allows the movie to go really big without ever detaching from it’s main point.

Sisu’s real triumph, I think, comes in the way it balances the various aspects at play here: the tones, genres, styles, so many of them threatening to get in the way of each other if Herlander doesn’t play his cards right. On the surface, there’s really too much going on here – a heavy classic Western influence, slapstick comedy gore, the World War Two historical setting with a Commando comics feel with the cacklingly evil Nazis (Aksel Hennie as the captain knew exactly what he was doing when he turned in this outrageous performance), the almost folklore-ish elements of Korpi’s legend, the ultra-intense action, the story of trauma and revenge that drive our leading man: arguably, it’s too much.

Or it would have been, had it not been for Herlander’s masterful balancing act. Sisu is a movie that molds and bends in almost every scene, shifting into a new shape to match whatever the story needs, without feeling out-of-control or chaotic in any way. It’s a sign of a director who’s clearly at the top of his game, handling each shift to create this seamless blanket of a story made up of patchwork pieces from a million other movies and genres.

I think the lean runtime really helps with this, and an extended version might have worn out it’s enormously silly welcome. Tormilla allows for this madness to unfold around him without anything as silly as dialogue getting in the way, but the nuance in the excellent and near-wordless performance still fills out the character with a satisfying depth. It’s tightness and focus in the storytelling and character work allows for this playfulness with genre and style, an open playground for Herlander to take on everything from the Western to Finnish folklore.

It’s a masterpiece of a movie, really, and one that has to be seen to be believed – whatever you’re coming for (and especially if you like seeing Nazis get what’s coming to them), it’s going to satisfy. Wildly entertaining and utterly unique, it’s a proper cinematic experience, and another string to Herlander’s excellent bow of a back catalogue.

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By Lou MacGregor

(header image via Vulture)