Locked in a life-or-death struggle with Spain, the Dutch are desperate to find new allies and trade partners. Because Spain is quite good at maintaining embargoes and blockades, the hardy explorers need to find ever new routes. A young secretary trying to prove himself embarks on a ship determined to find a northern (a very northern) route to China, and thence to India. To the crew's horror, they get immobilised by unforgiving ice. This will mean hibernating in one of the planet's most awful hellholes...
The movie is loosely based on real events, although I suspect that a great deal of poetic license was used. It's got its good points : it was made with care and it looks good, with beautiful visuals, fine special effects and well-chosen locations. It also contains a good depiction of relentless isolation and cold. At times the viewer, too, will shudder with cold...
On the other hand the movie found it quite hard to build emotion, horror or suspense, even when the events described were heart-breaking. The characters were shallow ; and, worse of all, if and when they became convincing, they became convincing as modern 21st-century people, not as Renaissance people. The love affair of the protagonist, for instance, felt so modern that one rather expected the lovers to go on a weekend trip to Paris in order to take in a Chanel fashion show and to sip champagne near the Eiffel Tower. So yes, sadly, there's a failure of the imagination.
The movie is loosely based on real events, although I suspect that a great deal of poetic license was used. It's got its good points : it was made with care and it looks good, with beautiful visuals, fine special effects and well-chosen locations. It also contains a good depiction of relentless isolation and cold. At times the viewer, too, will shudder with cold...
On the other hand the movie found it quite hard to build emotion, horror or suspense, even when the events described were heart-breaking. The characters were shallow ; and, worse of all, if and when they became convincing, they became convincing as modern 21st-century people, not as Renaissance people. The love affair of the protagonist, for instance, felt so modern that one rather expected the lovers to go on a weekend trip to Paris in order to take in a Chanel fashion show and to sip champagne near the Eiffel Tower. So yes, sadly, there's a failure of the imagination.