Movie Review: OPERATION NAPOLEON

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: August 11th, 2023 / 01:43 AM

OPERATION NAPOLEON | ©2023 Magnolia Pictures

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Vivian Ólafsdóttir, Jack Fox, Iain Glen, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Adesuwa Oni, Annette Badland, Atli Óskar Fjalarsson
Writer: Marteinn Thorisson, based on the novel by Arnaldur Indriòason
Director: Óskar Thór Axelsson
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing
Release Date: August 11, 2023

OPERATION NAPOLEON technically fits into the Nordic noir genre. It is a thriller, set and partially shot in Iceland (some sequences were filmed in Germany), amidst lots of snow and ice, with dialogue that is about equally split between English and Icelandic.

However, unlike a lot of its compatriots, OPERATION NAPOLEON has a relatively balanced disposition. Yes, people get tortured and killed, but none of the main characters, whether heroes or villains, spend any time pondering the meaning of existence, humanity’s infinite capacity for cruelty, or any similar topics. Mainly, they run, either away or in pursuit.

A brief prologue, set in April 1945 Iceland, shows us a surprised goat farmer who hears a strange noise during a blizzard. He ventures outside in time to see a plane descending overhead.

Then we’re in the present, in Washington, D.C., where we see William Tarr (Iain Glen), playing affectionately with his grandchildren. But Tarr has a ruthless side that comes out when he is mission-oriented.

Then we return to Iceland, still in the present, where we meet snowmobile enthusiast Elli (Atli Óskar Fjalarsson) and his two friends, who are racing around on a glacier. To their astonishment, changes in the ice have unearthed the remains of the crashed plane, which has a Nazi swastika on the now-visible tail fin. But when Elli goes inside the plane and starts shooting video with his phone, he sees that the long-dead pilot has a U.S. flag on his uniform.

But then some Americans show up, under Tarr’s command. In no time, Elli’s friends are murdered. Elli flees in a panic and sends the footage to his sister Kristin (Vivian Ólafsdóttir), a sharp-witted bank executive.

At first, Kristin thinks Elli is playing a prank. But when an assassin shows up at her home, she realizes she and her brother are both in danger.

Escaping the assassin, Kristin winds up seeking help from her ex, Steve Rush (Jack Fox), a young Englishman who’s a history professor. Together, they deduce that all of this is related to a World War II plane crash and something called Operation Napoleon.

Just what Napoleon is remains a maguffin secret until the end of the movie. OPERATION NAPOLEON consists primarily of first Kristin, then Kristin and Steve, attempting to stay one step ahead (sometimes literally) of Tarr and his crew.

The screenplay by Marteinn Thorisson, based on the novel by Arnaldur Indriòason, moves the characters around nimbly. Further, the good guys are personable, if not very deep. Ólafsdóttir and Fox, eventually joined by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, are all likable. (And kudos to whoever decided that Kristin ought to have a pet cat the size of a small toddler.) Glen as Tarr, and Wotan Wilke Möhring and Adesuwa Oni as two of Tarr’s main associates, are properly chilling.

Director Óskar Thór Axelsson makes shrewd use of intercutting. He also has a flair for staging sequences in confined spaces, although perhaps he doesn’t avail himself of all the visual possibilities in the gleaming snow fields.

But possibly this is a budgetary issue. OPERATION NAPOLEON looks a bit like it couldn’t afford the huge action that typically accompanies this type of storytelling, at least in American movies. Without said action, the scripts try to be funnier, or more thoughtful, or both. Certainly, once the topic of Nazism is broached, it seems like more historical resonance should result.

Instead, what we get is what feels like a double episode of a TV drama as it introduces a new character. The stakes are ostensibly high, but there’s a sense that there are parameters that will not be breached in terms of both narrative and spectacle. There’s nothing particularly wrong with OPERATION NAPOLEON (except for the enormity of the coincidence that Kristin’s pining former boyfriend is the only person who can help her), it just never completely engages us.

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