Northern Comfort

Some films are heart-warming and life-affirming, Northern Comfort isn't either, nor is it a comedy, in the sense that I didn't laugh at all whilst watching it.

I can sense what the creators were aiming at, an offbeat stab at the anxieties, atomisation and general perversity and shallowness of modern life, centred around fear of flying but attempting to tackle some deeper issues. It may have worked better as a straight up drama, or with the insertion of some actual jokes - an effective satire.

Timothy Spall is usually decent and he isn't bad here, just underused. The cinematography is fine and the central performance of Lydia Leonard is rather good.

None of the characters really connect with one another (which might be intentional) and there is a sense of loneliness pervading the whole thing, enhanced by the cold and harsh Icelandic environment. The plot takes some turns into weird territory, but not really weird enough to make a real statement. There were opportunities for some physical comedy, but these were overlooked (perhaps, the makers felt actual humour would be too crass?).

'Jokes' revolve around random men showing pics of their genitals as a seduction attempt; a random hook-up between two men which might be a desperate career move, a coming out revelation or both; a social media 'influencer' who describes her career as 'travelling the world and taking pictures of my bum' and a taxi driver driving whilst drunk. Oh, and one of the characters has a silly haircut.

If any of that sounds promising to you then maybe this will appeal.

As a final side note, I wonder whether this is the type of slightly disturbing and dissatisfying product that AI, raised entirely on a diet of social media and the internet, will create in the future?

This film really missed the mark for me. It's rare to find anything with Tim Spall in that disappoints, but this did fall into that category. I had high hopes despite the fairly average rating, as I felt that this had good ingredients, but unfortunately, they were deployed badly.

I am usually keen on anything involving aviation, mystery, or wonderful landscapes, but I wasn't engaged with this at all. None of the characters were believable as they were so riddled with contradictions and were never properly developed. The few moments of comedy were absurd rather than clever and, despite mostly decent acting performances, the script failed to properly explain or explore anything to give the viewer something to invest in.

The pacing of the film felt all wrong for a comedy and equally wrong for a credible drama, so for me, it didn't really deliver on any level. A real shame given what could have been done with this,

I've no idea why this has such a low rating. I thought it was really funny and just the right side of bonkers!

I only watched it because it was listed under 'deadly disasters' on Netflix, even though the blurb didn't seem to match that description. So, I presume people expecting an actual disaster movie would be disappointed. I guessed it was probably more of a comedy and was pleasantly surprised that it was so good.

It's definitely worth an evening's watch on the sofa, especially if you fancy something light and a bit silly.

And hats off to the lead for all that running about in the freezing cold!

I was very excited about this movie, to finally be very disappointed. There seems to be no structure, random things happen all the time and the humour is cringe. Very mediocre acting, bad lines, and honestly, I feel like Ruben Ostlund could do a copyright claim on this. Vivaldi's four seasons with snow shots, a random drone pov shot in a hotel room, literally copied from Force Majeure. And stealing the idea of his future movie, about a flight going wrong? Ridiculous. Also some very unrealistic scenarios in it, which do not make sense. Barely any character development. Bad movie, not funny but lame. Not worth it.

A group of people, all with an intense fear of flying, attend a course, and when they finally end up in the air, their flight goes wrong, and they get marooned in Iceland.

It's bizarre, I have no other word to describe this film, it is just utterly weird and zany. I thought it was going to be so much better.

I honestly can't say I disliked it, that wouldn't be fair, but I definitely wouldn't want to sit through it again. Billed as a comedy, but very thin on laughs, but definitely an interesting character study.

It takes some seriously weird turns, the whole Alfonso situation was so bizarre, but did give us the film's funniest sequence. For me, Edward was the most interesting character, sadly his backstory just wasn't developed enough.

One thing it did, was make me want to visit Iceland, it looks sublime.

Timothy Spall stood out, but then he always does.

Quirky, disappointing, but bizarrely watchable.

6/10.