WHO knew a Finnish coming of age story starring Samuel L Jackson would be anything more than a major Hollywood star phoning it in for a paycheck in darkest Europe?
Starring young Onni Tommila as a young boy out hunting deer in a Finnish ritual of manhood and Samuel L Jackson as the somewhat helpless President of the United States, ‘Big Game’ (2015) tells the unlikely story of a little hunter facing the big task of protecting the beleaguered leader of the Free World.
Offering up novel landscapes and daring escapes, the film written and directed by Jalmari Helander is surprisingly good and just goes to show that inspiring and entertaining films need not be so tightly hung on the old Hollywood hooks.
Subtly celebrating Finnish language and culture with enough explosion and star power to appeal to the masses, ‘Big Game’ does the seemingly impossible and pits a relatively unknown European child star against Samuel L Jackson and wins.
The film also stars Felicity Huffman, Victor Garber, Ted Levine, Jim Broadbent and Ray Stevenson but the real star of the show is young Tommila who plays the troubled Oskari with sensitivity to conflict and character way beyond his 16 years. Even more so because Oskari is supposed to be 12 and embarking on his adventure in adulthood on his 13th birthday.
Engaging, original and good fun, ‘Big Game’ is a great movie day out for fathers and sons eager to experience a solid dose of action and adventure. The setting is strange, the actors are familiar but the film isn’t quite like anything you’ve seen before.
And in the age of remakes, rehashes and reruns, that is most certainly a good thing.
‘Big Game’ is now playing at Ster-Kinekor at Maerua and Grove Mall.
– martha@namibian.com.na, marth__vader on Twitter and Instagram
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