The Unthinkable Review: Intense Drama and Exciting Disaster In Sweden

Release date: May 7, 2021
Running time: 129 minutes
Starring: Christoffer Nordenrot, Lisa Henni, Jesper Barkselius, Pia Halvorsen, Magnus Sundberg, Krister Kern, Karin Bertling, Ulrika Bäckström, Alexej Manvelov
Director: Victor Danell
Writers: Victor Danell (as Crazy Pictures), Christoffer Nordenrot

In Swedish film collective Crazy Pictures feature "Den blomstertid nu kommer" Sweden faces a mysterious attack while Alex tries to reunite with his youth love, Anna.

The Unthinkable is an interesting hybrid film; part disaster movie, part action movie, part romance and family drama, this movie takes a lot of distinct concepts and merges them into a unique cinematic experience.  The movie is an ambitious one, with an intense disaster brewing amid Alex (Nordenrot)'s internal family drama and the coming to terms of his life's mistakes.  However, in doing that he is forced to confront his abusive but loving father and his childhood love.  And amid all of this he has to stay alive during a strange happening that is causing death and destruction throughout Sweden.

The Unthinkable effectively tells this disaster story through some amazing acting by its large cast and some great special effects.  Although this movie is mostly a drama, the effects do not play second fiddle.  Huge explosions, dramatic sequences, and some intense hand to hand fighting let you know that this movie takes its action seriously.  And that these visuals are accompanied by some world-ending sound helps with both the excitement and confusion of this time.  But the main draw of this film is the drama that occurs amid this world-ending event, starting from Alex's childhood and progressing into modern times.  You get to see where he came from and what he wishes he had done, along with the lives of many characters that intersect with Alex during this crazy time.

However, although The Unthinkable tells a unique story and is an experience that I did not expect, the film doesn't quite come together.  The start is filled with these intense sequences of both drama and action, but I really couldn't tell what was going on or how everyone connected.  Part of this might be the run time, which let the directors spend extra time developing these characters.  But even when the action started (much farther into the film than I expected), I still did not have a good sense of how everyone fit together.  The film has so many plot threads and so many disparate sequences that it makes it tough to weave them all together.  And sometimes it feels like the world ending event is an afterthought to the interesting romance.  Finally, the film has a few plot holes involving this event that are not cleared up during the movie's long but exciting run time.

The Unthinkable is a unique experience, with an intense drama amid an apocalyptic event. The effects and characters will keep you motivated as you learn about their past and their fate.

Rent it.

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The Unthinkable is available digitally, and on demand on May 7, 2021.  

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