FILM REVIEW: PIONEER

Mike (Wes Bentley) and Knut (André Eriksen) in Pioneer.

You can go Norway

By Miranda Inganni

After a deadly accident on the sea bed, a Norwegian diver intent on completing his risky deep sea mission encounters intrigue and subterfuge in Erik Skoldbjærg’s latest release, Pioneer.

In the early 1980s, scientists discover a huge oil field in the North Sea off the coast of Norway. The only trick is figuring out how to build the pipelines deep below. Enter the Americans, who have much greater experience and resources when it comes to such matters. The governments of both countries know there is the potential to make a great sum of money. But at what cost?

Petter (Aksel Hennie) and his brother, Knut (André Eriksen), are sent on a test dive down to 360 meters below the ocean’s surface with anther crew member, Jørgen (David A. Jørgensen). Tragedy strikes and one of them is killed. Petter is convinced that his breathing gas line was cut, causing him to briefly blackout and ultimately do the damage that killed his fellow diver. But how can he prove it when it becomes clear that there is a coverup?

Both the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and the American company, Deep Sea Diving (who they are working alongside, but not necessarily with), try to deflect the investigation. There is huge money to be made and neither company wants their name to be sullied nor to be found at fault.

As Petter tries to discover the truth about what happened at the bottom of the sea, dead bodies keep piling up. Will Petter discover the truth and try to right some of the wrongs, or will he be drowned by the greedy corporations and their minions?

Co-starring Wes Bentley (recently seen in The Hunger Games), Stephen Lang, and Jonathan LaPaglia as the American team; and Jørgen Langhelle, Ane Dahl Torp and Stephanie Sigman helping to round out the Norwegian players, Pioneer features some great acting. Additionally, cinematographer Jallo Faber captures the claustrophobia and bleak hopefulness  of deep sea diving (the penultimate shot is fantastic).

 

However, I could have done with a lot less of the Darth Vader-esque underwater breathing. We get it. Petter is isolated, cold, and completely dependent on artificial apparatus to stay alive., but the score by Air is annoyingly (but successfully!) complementary.

 

Lastly, the organization who winds up with the oil at the film is particularly, politically telling, considering Norway's current status as one of the best places, if not the best, place in the world to live. (Thanks to Norway's "welfare state" of high taxes Norwegians have the second-highest level of satisfaction with their standards of living. It also has the largest government surplus in the world. Norway's per capita GDP is $57,000 a year. It is ranked number one in the world for the best place to grow old. It also has the highest gender equality in the economy. And, perhaps most importantly, Norway now has the highest Human Development Index.)