At the end of Robert Eggers' first movie, 2015's "The Witch," Anya Taylor-Joy's character joins an eerie group of witches in the woods and — in a shocking and subversive moment — lifts off into the air, free from gender roles and gravity.
Unfortunately, Eggers' third film, "The Northman," never reaches its moment of flight. Despite efforts from the Valkyries and Odin's ravens, this Viking action art piece is fettered to the ground by the demands of the studio gods.
In this third effort, Eggers is adapting a Viking tale that inspired "Hamlet," but he has a bigger budget and bigger names (this is his first departure from indie mainstreamer A24, which produced "The Witch" and 2019's "The Lighthouse"). With those armaments come more action, blood and guts, and — as Eggers has spoken about in interviews — more input from test audiences and studio execs (Focus Features).
