The 12th Man

After a less-than-distinguished hiatus in Hollywood, director Harald Zwart returned to Norway in 2016 to make this wartime adventure based on the incredible tale of Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian commando whose team of a dozen men was sent into his homeland in 1943 to destroy airfields being used by occupying German forces. The only one to escape when his comrades were captured, tortured, and executed by the Nazis, the injured Baalsrud spent two months traversing the frozen landscape to reach the Swedish border, constantly pursued by fanatical Sturmbannführer Kurt Stage. Thomas Gullestad, his face contorted with pain, evokes Baalsrud’s determination with harrowing authenticity, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers exudes evil as the equally determined Stage. While this is primarily the story of Baalsrud’s courage, The 12th Man does not overlook the bravery of those who helped Baalsrud during his journey—most notably siblings Marius (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen) and Gudrun (Marie Blokhus). Shot in somber hues in what appears to be a genuinely forbidding environment, the film’s heroics might sometimes seem over-the-top, but a cheeky opening title observes that the most incredible events depicted here actually occurred. Recommended. (F. Swietek)