Polar (2019) | Film Review

I knew early on I wanted to be an artist. I’m not going to say it was the first thing I knew I wanted to be because I used to want to build and program robots, but one weekend indoors with my Commodore 64 and a page of code while my friends played outside cured me of that.

The other things I spent a lot of time with that held my fascination like a fat kid to a cupcake (beyond being a fat kid who loved cupcakes) were things related to art. Paintings by the Wizards of the Coast artist; Parkinson, Elmore, and Frazetta to name a few. Cartoons, ranging from your usual Saturday morning fair to the type that I only later in life learned to call anime, filled my mind with ideas on how life should be framed and viewed. Comics, like cartoons, showed me how stories can be told. What does all that mean? Well, you are about to find out.

In Polar, Duncan Vizla (Mads Mikkelsen) is a prolific assassin known as the Black Kaiser. He is reaching his retirement age and interested in living a more normal life. He meets Camille (Vanessa Hudgens), a woman living on her own in the middle of nowhere to escape from a shattered past, and the two become friends. Soon Vizla finds himself up against an army of young assassins whose sole purpose is to take him out before he can collect on his big retirement paycheck.  

The story takes a tried and true premise and then takes a step just outside of it. It is not a normal “assassin on a rampage” type of movie. The motivations are clear, even if slightly more corporate here. It all makes for an interesting idea that doesn’t induce eye rolling. The story and subplots are layered to great effect and leave the viewer guessing but within reason. Now for something that I tend to not notice – the dialog is dicey in spots. Fortunately, the cast was able to manage it effectively, but WOOF… If there was any sign that Polar walks a line between greatness and dumpster fire (yeah, only those two options), it would be the dialog.

You know what can make or break dicey dialog? A great cast! The casting could not have been more perfect. Take Mads Mikkelsen, an actor known for being quietly fierce and intimidating, and surround him with a supporting cast that acts for the cheap seats. Cartoon characters one and all. Every one of the supporting actors were fed on scenery alone, the craft services budget was simply to cover the lemons that Mads needs to make that face – you know the face.

Speaking of Mads (we are tight now I can call him that), his portrayal of Duncan Vizla was fun to watch. He makes the face, he delivers lines with effortless ease, and he looks like someone who should be feared, even in his advanced age.  Everyone’s favorite shieldmaiden from Vikings, Katheryn Winnick plays Vivian, likely the only other understated character in this whole thing, but everything from her costume design to her surroundings is big and fun to watch.

Vanessa Hudgens is Camille, the woman that Duncan befriends, the role makes her nearly unrecognizable from what I have come to expect. So much so that the realization of who it is I’m watching, that’s small, broken and frightened of her own shadow, didn’t dawn on me for a full 45 minutes into the movie. It was nearly jarring but great work. The “Bad guy” of this whole little show, Blut, is played by Matt Lucas. Lucas looks like the blueprint of a cartoon character, just take his cherubic, non-distinct features and add accessories: done. Lucas’ ability to chew scenery amid delivering lines, and look good doing it, is vastly underrated in the comedic sense.

So, what do you do with a graphic novel story and cartoon character actors? Well, shoot them in a fashion deserving of the genre of course. An internet search was required for this one. I have never heard of the Polar graphic novel, so I needed to see where this came from. In style, the graphic novel Polar seems heavily influenced by Frank Miller’s Sin City, but on the other hand, the film seems to be pulling its visual inspiration from more places, if not directly from the Sin City films as well.

The framing of scenes is a study in composition. The transitions are kinetic and energetic, and add to the fun of the action. Speaking of action, the choreography isn’t exactly going to top any list, but it’s done intelligently imaginative. Now, back to the point I started with. If I were to create a Venn diagram of the items I stated before (artist, cartoons, comics), and lined them up just right at its center, you would find Polar.

Jason Rothwell and Jonas Åkerlund come together in a perfect storm of story and imagery that works in spite of clunky dialog, and with the driving strength of a cast who all knew what they came to work for.

Polar is now streaming on Netflix
Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Vanessa Hudgens, and Katheryn Winnick
Screenplay by Jason Rothwell and based on the graphic novel by Victor Santos
Directed by Jonas Åkerlund