The Doctor’s Diagnosis: A-
Sisu is the latest entry in the currently popular action subgenre of “don’t mess with a normal looking guy because he might actually be a complete badass and slaughter you.” This oddly specific subgenre is typified by Nobody and the John Wick movies and the trailers even spotlighted this connection by proclaiming that Sisu is “from the studio that brought you John Wick.” Now, ordinarily the whole “from the studio that brought you…” line is one of the most meaningless claims in all of marketing. You could have said “from the studio that brought you Child’s Play 2, now comes Schindler’s List” and that would be accurate. Nonsensical, but accurate. In this case, though, that bit of marketing does make sense. If you like John Wick and Nobody, then you will probably like Sisu. I love those movies and I kind of love this movie too.
I read one review that described this movie as being “narratively lean” and, yeah, that might even be an understatement. Sisu takes place near the end of World War II and follows a Finnish man named Aatami discovering gold in the countryside. When he begins his journey to the bank to deposit his new riches, he is accosted by a Nazi patrol and the Germans attempt to steal his gold. This is a really, really bad idea because while Aatami may look like a harmless old man, he is actually the most feared commando in the Finnish military. The rest of the film is just Aatami butchering Nazis and leaving a path of carnage behind him as he tries to make his way to the bank. I’m oversimplifying things, but only slightly. There is a satisfying subplot about some female prisoners being freed and slaughtering their Nazi captors. But, for the most part, Sisu is about a man walking from Point A to Point B and killing a shit load of Nazis in between.
So, yes, there is very little plot in this movie. In fact, it makes John Wick and Nobody seem downright complex in comparison. However, the film isn’t exactly aiming for narrative complexity. What it is aiming for is action and extreme violence and goddamn does it deliver in that arena. From the moment that Aatami first suddenly stabs a Nazi to the final moments of the film, Sisu is a nonstop barrage of gore and action. People are stabbed in the face and blown up and body parts are chopped off and blown in every direction. John Wick and Nobody are violent, sure, but nothing like this. This is more like if Troma produced a remake of John Wick (or, to make it closer to the actual plot, it’s like if Troma remade First Blood). In terms of both content and style (down to the chapter titles), this feels like a grindhouse movie from the 70s – early 80s, like something I would watch in a double feature with The Exterminator or Death Race 2000.
Unlike the other movies that I’ve mentioned, there is a bit of a fantastical element to Sisu. You might be wondering what the hell the title means. Well, “sisu” is a Finnish word that basically means a dogged, unwavering refusal to quit in the face of overwhelming odds. I guess “moxie” would be something of an English approximation of the word, but I don’t think that quite captures it. Our hero is the embodiment of “sisu” and, consequently, won’t quit or die even when logic and biology would dictate otherwise. Therefore, the film becomes increasingly cartoonish as Aatami’s journey continues and he is surviving bodily damage that might have even hurt John Wick in Chapter 4. The increasing absurdity of the film will likely turn off some viewers, which is understandable, though I do take issue with some reviewers that panned the increasingly unrealistic violence without understanding that that’s the entire freaking point.
I haven’t yet mentioned that our lead character doesn’t speak a single line of dialogue until the last scene (and, while the last line is funny, I wish they had left him with no dialogue at all). Despite that (or perhaps because of it), Jorma Tommila’s lead performance deserves a spotlight. With no dialogue, you can always tell exactly what this character is thinking because of Tommila’s excellent use of facial expressions and body language. Without saying a word, I know more about what this guy is thinking and where he has been than most actors nowadays can communicate with an entire script’s worth of material. With just a look in this guy’s eyes, I know he is someone I want to have a beer with and someone I don’t want to fuck with. That is a hell of an achievement as a performer.
Somehow both incredibly straightforward and oddly abstract, Sisu should please gorehounds and fans of 70s-style action movies and that puts in right into my wheelhouse. It isn’t a perfect film, certainly. Most pointedly, it lacks a compelling villain and instead just repeatedly throws cannon fodder at our hero. But the action and gore are so relentless and over-the-top that one doesn’t think of such things during the ride. Think of it as John Wick or First Blood on steroids with the anatomic realism of a Bugs Bunny cartoon and you will probably have a damn good time with it.
Image by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu_(film)#/media/File:Sisu_ver2.png
