Sisu: Uncomplicated, Audacious Fun

A song I heard a couple of years ago came to mind while I was watching Sisu for the first time last night: Lillie Mae's You've Got Other Girls for That. Forgive me if this simile is a little inappropriate for a film review, but I'll be if it isn't applicable. I have Schindler's List, Downfall, Saving Private Ryan, Hacksaw Ridge, and any number of forthcoming, earnest, and honest movies to watch when I want to see a serious portrait of World War II. It's a dark period in our world's history, and I think it's healthy to treat it with a level of respect. But cinema is cinema, and creativity happens to be one of its cornerstones. Sometimes, I need serious movies about war that give me profound questions to ponder. And other times, I just need to watch a gold miner destroy Nazis with a variety of sharp and blunt instruments for my own entertainment. Sisu doesn't need to be a serious movie, nor does it try. I have other movies for that. Sisu is about as barebones as you can get with a plot, and its main protagonist is equally uncomplicated. However, just because Sisu is a simple and inglorious movie doesn't mean that it's a bad one - far be it from me to dismiss a movie just because it doesn't have any important statement to make or any complex theme to explore. This movie, while far from a masterpiece, does a lot of things well, and its entertainment value is through the roof. Sometimes, that's enough.

So, what is the movie even about, you may ask? Sisu, a 2022 action movie, follows Aatami, a prospector in the Finnish wilderness, as he discovers gold in 1944, the last days of World War II on the European Front. As he takes the gold into town, a Waffen-SS platoon tries to steal it from him, and quickly finds out that they messed with the wrong man.

So, it may be occurring to you by this point in the review that Sisu is probably a movie defined by excess - and it is. However, for as audacious and inglorious as this movie can be, its visual style is surprisingly restrained and organic, even beautiful at points. It uses a lot of natural lighting to really good effect, rarely utilizing artificial lighting in any way, and I like how unforced and natural this makes it look. Cinematographer Kjell Lagerroos plays well with this surprising minimalism, and the image of Sisu is a legitimately strong one. This visual style is a nice touch, as Sisu is very light on dialogue and even surprisingly contemplative in its first act for a movie that's ultimately about killing Nazis, even if it may be an uncomplicated movie in just about every way. It's a legitimately cool effect because it makes Sisu simultaneously bombastic and restrained. Its content is excessive, but its visual style is grounded. I honestly don't think I've ever seen a movie do this before, and it's a refreshing, almost how-did-we-miss-this approach.

As for what little story structure the movie has, that's by design, and while it's a safe tactic that mostly doesn't do anything special, I like how Sisu is divided into four chapters. Every so often, a title heralding the start of a new chapter will distractingly flash on the screen to remind you of this movie's progression. What's more, it's a nice and unusual aesthetic touch as well. As for the story, it's really minimalistic and kind of safe, if you will. It's basically a series of varying shooting galleries and dangerous situations where Aatami can kill Nazis and blow their machines up. The movie doesn't have as distinctive a narrative arc as other movies, but it doesn't need to be Mission Impossible with a set-in-stone and stated goal, because that's not what Sisu is trying to do. It might not have the depth nor complexity of even other action movies, but what it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in sheer ridiculousness, entertainment value, and production quality.

Sisu isn't high art by any stretch of the imagination. It's not trying to bad any awards at the Oscars, and I respect it for not watering itself down with sentimentality and for sticking to what it does best - blowing Nazis to kingdom come. And while it may not be an Oscar contender, it actually doesn't do much of anything wrong. Now, is this because it's a safe movie that doesn't take any risks? Well, yeah. Sisu doesn't really excel in any way, and its four-part plot, though aesthetically pleasing, is paper-thin. But I imagine you're not here to find a source of artistic inspiration or even to shed a tear or two. You're here to see one thing and one thing only: an angry Finnish miner kicking the Sauerkraut out of Hitler's finest. So who cares if this movie isn't the most complicated character study ever? Well, now that I say it, I do, but I imagine you don't.

What Sisu lacks in narrative grace, it gains in sheer ridiculousness. Of course, being from the makers of John Wick, you've probably guessed that this movie is really violent - and it is, more so than the well-known and much-loved saga of Baba Yaga. The dialogue in Sisu is incredibly sparse - Aatami has one line in the entire film - but what dialogue there is is splattered with F-words. Sexual content is light, but one soldier buttons up his shirt after what we can assume was a sexual escapade with a captured Finnish woman. Sisu is a rowdy and audacious movie made for a rowdy and audacious crowd. It's bombastic, and not once does it apologize. I knew what I was getting into, and in case you don't, this is why I tag the end of a lot of my articles with a parental advisory. Sisu may embrace its R-rating in full, but that said, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have an absolute blast watching it.

Sisu - 7/10

Proverbs 16:31