The classic disaster movie, with its thrills and chills, is a perennial Hollywood staple. The Wave, directed by Roar Uthaug, comes to us from an unexpected source — Norway.
Scheduled to open in Canada on March 4, it’s based on an actual incident in 1934 during which a Norwegian town was flooded and destroyed by a tsunami. Uthaug’s film, set in scenic fjord country, unfolds over a short period in which tranquility gives way to mayhem.
Kristian (Kristoffer Joner), a geologist, monitors the seismic activity of a wooded mountain range overlooking the picturesque town in which he and his family live contentedly. Although he’s found a new position in the big city and is just days away from filling it, he’s still involved in the workings of the early warning center which still employs him.
Concerned that something is amiss, he warns his boss that the sensors monitoring the mountain are malfunctioning. If this is true, the town would be in peril.
Uthaug, a skilled craftsman, builds up tension incrementally. Thirty minutes into the film, a sense of palpable dread already pervades it.
The foreboding is foreshadowed by tremors, detected by Kristian’s colleagues as they descend into a crevice, and by the knowledge that the tourist hotel in which Kristian’s wife (Ane Dahl Torp) works would be in the path of a tsunami.
The worst-case scenario, a tsunami unleashed by a rock slide, materializes as the rumbling mountain implodes. A terrifying 80-meter-high wall of foaming water roars toward the town, giving residents only 10 minutes to get out of the way.
Kristian and his daughter seek high ground as the tsunami approaches in all its wild fury, while his wife and son try to save themselves from a watery grave.
Uthaug pulls out all the stops to create menace and suspense. The Wave stirs the emotions and reminds us yet again that we’re all at the mercy of mother nature.