Sisu: Finnish Action Director Leaves Hollywood Behind in His Blood-Spattered Wake
By Thom Ernst
Rating: A
I don’t imagine it’ll be long before Finnish director Jalmari Helander ranks as a Hollywood A-lister. But don’t wait for the world to take notice before seeing his films. And for all that is sacred in action movies, don’t put off seeing Sisu.
Sisu is Helander’s latest—a hybrid action/war/revenge film with enough octane to blast Michael Bay out of competition.
Sisu, we are told, refers to an unstoppable all-or-nothing fury rising out of hopelessness; a fantastical notion of unconquerable endurance and bravery that can only happen in the movies. There is no English translation.
Jorma Tommila in Sisu: One angry Finn against a Nazi platoon? That sounds about right.
But what need for translations when Helander is willing to illustrate its meaning with 90 minutes of limb-severing, brain-splatting, blood-gushing kills—each one more creative than the last? Sisu is a satisfying barrage of exploding body parts—most belonging to smirking, murderous, rapey arrogant Nazis—so, all good.
It’s 1944. The Second World War is nearing its end. Even in the scorched plains of Lapland, it's evident that Germany is barrelling towards defeat. In a rare moment of self-awareness, the Nazis—led by a vicious stone-hearted tank commander Bruno (Aksel Hennie)—recognize that, while losing the war is humiliating, being held accountable for war crimes is a death sentence.
Unwilling to take defeat on the chin, and less willing to be tried and executed, Bruno and crew blaze a trail of destruction, leaving their mark before the schnitzel hits the fan.
Opportunity rides by in the unlikely form of Aatami (Jorma Tommila) an aging reclusive prospector. Aatami has hit the motherlode and is making his way home with his only companions, a trusty horse, and a loyal dog. Prospector and Nazis' paths meet. Aatami keeps his head low, but the Nazis, fueled by the lust of their blood sport, are not about to let a kill slip by them.
The intensity is kicked up a few notches when it's discovered that Aatami is carting several saddlebags of gold. Bruno hangs on the hope that buying his freedom is his only chance of avoiding the noose.
And so, it's one man battling a convoy of trucks, tanks, artillery, and foot soldiers. Forget the math, the odds are against the Nazis. John Wick has nothing on Aatami.
Helander has twice dipped into a similar pool of unlikely heroes pitted against unstoppable foes. Most recently, Big Game (2014), and before that Rare Exports (2010). Both Rare Exports and Big Game set a standard for a style that borders on what could be defined as action-tribute films heightened by exploiting the conventions of the genre.
Hennie as Bruno delivers unconscionable brutality like he was belting out a show tune: all evil, all heartless, all the time. Similarily, Tommila, as the reclusive, unkillable, stone-faced Aatami, remains stoic even when cringing through the pain of stitching his flesh together.
I don’t know if Helander aspires to be a Hollywood insider. He’s three features deep into his career and seems content making movies in his homeland, even casting the same actors—notably the father-and-son duo Jorma Tommila and Onni Tommila. The latter appears this time as a Nazi after appearing twice as the hero in Helander’s previous films.
It could be that Sisu is the film to lure Tommila out of Lapland. It can also be the film that leads Tommila as Aatami to take on more era-appropriate bad guys. I don’t begrudge Helander a chance to work with a bigger budget, nor Tommila a reoccurring role, but I doubt its necessary.
It might be better if Helander, not unlike his lone hero in Susi, is left to continue without interference. Hollywood might be good, but Helander is doing just fine on his own.
Sisu. Directed by Jalmari Helander and stars Aksel Hennie, Jorma Tommila and Onni Tommila. Sisu opens in theatres Friday, April 28.