“The Burning Sea” (“Nordsjøen”), (2022): The Price of Oil

In the North Atlantic off the Norwegian coast an oil drilling platform has gone down in spectacular fashion. As researchers scramble to determine what happened, they soon realize that this is only the beginning of something much more grave.

It has been written before on this film review blog that Norwegians love their disaster flicks. But this tenet probably stands in need of a little tweak. For a more apt assertion may be that Norwegians love flicks in which the disasters are wreaked by Mother Nature. And those in positions of authority, too often blinded by power and fortune, are rendered helpless.

Such is the case in the Norway-made action adventure thriller “The Burning Sea” (“Nordsjøen”). Sofia (Kristine Kujath Thorp) is an expert in underwater video gathering. Her single-dad boyfriend Stian (Henrik Bjelland) works on one of a slew of the offshore oil rigs in the North Atlantic Ocean. Practically in the blink of an eye this young couple are thrust at breakneck speed into calamitous upheaval. Suddenly, and quite mysteriously (natural or man-made causes?), a drilling platform tumbles into the bitter cold waters of the vast sea. And Sofia and Stian are fated to figure prominently in the terrifying bedlam that ensues. More prominently than they could ever know.

Director John Andreas Andersen has mined such fertile catastrophic ground before. His 2018’s “The Quake” brings earth-shattering pandemonium to Oslo. Once Andersen stomps on the accelerator pedal in “The Burning Sea”, he does not relent until this spectacular story’s emotionally gripping final scenes.

And here’s another theme yours truly has observed having watched his fair share of Norwegian cinematic productions. Female characters are consistently portrayed as tough, resilient and no-nonsense dårlige rumper. These ain’t no “downstream dolls”, pal. Thorp’s Sofia carries this torch of regard and respect high here, with action hero pride and the heart of a lioness.

But does Sofia save the day? And the entirety of the western coastline of Norge along with it?

Here’s a most enthusiastic recommendation to “take the plunge” and find out for yourselves!

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