Max Manus is a renowned Norwegian resistance fighter and saboteur. His story is quite fantastic and an obvious choice for a cinematic action movie. A movie of this epic nature is not a common thing in Scandinavian cinema but this is probably more due to lack of funding than a lack of interest in giant productions.
Max manus (Aksel Hennie) arrives in Norway from a time supporting the Finnish resistance against Russia. Despite his reliving the experience during nightmares, he feels compelled to start a Norwegian resistance. He is among a gang of other very young men, in their early twenties i would think, who also are keen on starting a resistance, primarily through "illegal" papers.
But it does not take long for the gestapo to figure out what is going on between these youth´s and Max is arrested. He manages to escape by throwing himself out a third floor window landing in the street. He is put in a hospital and his injuries are lied much worse than they are. With the help of a nurse he manages to escape through the window, and escape out of the country and get Britain.
He enrolls in the exile Norwegian force and is trained in sabotage, specifically of ships. While there, he meets up with an old resistance friend Gregers (Nicolai Cleve Broch) and his girlfriend Tikken (Agnes Kittelsen). This is the start of a growing love relationship with Tikken, who will eventually become his wife.
He rejoins and heads a group of resistance back in Norway and successfully sabotages several German ships. The gestapo ups their efforts to catch the group, particularly Manus, but he manages to escape every time. But meanwhile his group slowly diminish as they are killed of.
But he keeps going despite all hope and he manages, with a few of those who are left, to rig the ship SS Donau with mines and blow it up. This is in the last days of the German occupation of Norway and on 8 may 1945, the country is liberated, as the Germans surrender to the Allied forces. Max Manus clearly have mixed feelings. The war has become his life and now he is a friendless, penniless nobody. But the love between him and Tikken makes him able to carry on and later he is honored as the greatest resistance person when he parades with the King through the streets of Oslo.
The directors manages to pull off a really discrete but beautifully shot epic drama. It does not go overboard in nationalism or heroism. But it does not touch much on the deeper feelings of the involved characters either. But the transition from very stupid boyish eagerness to go out and "do something" to a much more mature and realistic, and even nihilistic attitude as the years go by, comes through quite well.
But still the movie has to follow a certain plot and not stir too much of the preconceptions of the nationalism infected memory of the heroes of the second world war. Scandinavians have a stoic clinging to remembering the war and raise their resisting heroes to extraordinary levels, since they did not defend their countries very well and mostly just let the Germans run all over them. At least we can save face by flinging a few brave resistance people at those who really fought the Germans down in the lower parts of Europe and elsewhere.
It is fairly good entertainment if you are in the mood for this kind of movie. I found it overall rather predictable and formulaic and more like a "look we can also make an epic war movie in Norway" than a story with a real message or touching emotional depth. It is pretty much a very well made semi-documentary about the most famous Norwegian resistance person, and that is about it.
(all images are my own photos taken with an iPad directly at the TV screen)
Rating: 4/10
