It’s been kept deliberately ambiguous as Italian music video director Francesco Carusini specifically made his feature-length debut, adapted from Jo Nespo’s bestselling novel “The Midnight Sun,” which wrapped up the prestigious Venice Film Festival on an unlikely note. Perhaps one leans towards Norway? But it could be Iceland or Greenland or any one of those outback and fjord regions that usually belong to Denmark. It’s not like language cues help: the dialogue is in English and the massive, windswept coastal landscape is carefully scanned from signage that might betray its provenance, as much as a single “ø” can be.
The nationalities of the actors are still less used. Under the Italian title of Alessandro Borghi (“Eight Mountains”), the rest of the cast is stacked with British talent (Charles Dance, Peter Mullen, Jessica Brown Findlay), though we know for sure, by the way the sun never sets the mood is firmly set. On the “Scandinavian desperation”, we are certainly not in either country. Don’t worry: Even without understanding exactly where we are, “The Hanging Sun” will feel as familiar as a worn pair of pajamas to anyone who’s turned on TV in the past decade. Because we’re truly in Skandland, the site of a mix of every movie and TV show from the recent “Scandy noir” wave, a sinister place with secrets, seasonal affective disorder, and Sarah Lund jackets.
The book it’s based on is a sequel, which captures the distinct feel of “Episode 2” right up to the start, in which John (Borgy), a hitman for his gangster father (Mulan), is already in the midst of a damask transformation regarding his murderous career. After refusing to carry out the last killing, and then lying about it to Dad (whose gang is not poorly defined, and is often noted for his penchant for chandeliers and Victrola-style recordings of pre-war pop films), he escapes, pursued by his disgruntled adoptive brother Michael ( Frederick Schmidt), who was ordered to be returned to the barn. Because yes, we realize with some relief that we do not expect to buy the idea of Borghi, whose meager dialogue still betrays something slight Italian, as a blood relative of either the Englishman Schmidt or the Scotsman Mullane. In fact, his father’s apparent preference for the emotionally conflicted John, his “chosen” son, over Michael the thug, his child by birth, is one of the few original films that flourished in film.
Jon is (probably) heading north, stopping only when he runs out of land, on an island at the “end of the world”. There, unfriendly locals live according to the patriarchal principles of the local shepherd Jacob (dance), a traditional sulfur delivered in sermons that proclaim, “Fear is a gift from God. We must all learn to be afraid.” Sure enough, his cute daughter Leah (Brown Findlay) is scared, though her abusive husband Aaron (Sam Sprwell) and his heavy fists are more than eternal damnation.
The reason why this able and brave woman never took herself and her son Caleb (Rafael Vivas) away from her horrible husband – and this entire lost community of devout hypocrites – is one of the mysteries the movie never solves. Perhaps she was just waiting for a silent, grizzly hunk that could give her a run for her money in both Bad Dad and Grecian’s profile sections. Seriously, as much as DP Nicolaj Bruel has the region’s humid death vistas, she’s positively in love with the two stars’ allure, especially when illuminated by a cool, slanting sun.
Without plenty of male role models, perhaps it’s no surprise that Caleb immediately takes a glimpse at Jon, even though the former killer introduced himself by pulling a pistol at him. And this was before he even heard how Caleb spoke, with the glassy tone and strict formal rules of an aged Victorian aristocrat. “How do you intend to nourish and hydrate yourself?” The 12-year-old sneers once Jon settles into the hunting cabin that the suspicious Leah has allowed him to sit in for a while.
It turns out that Caleb adopted these speech patterns as a trick to help him overcome stuttering, but by the time we learn this, the character’s hilarious Princes has already settled as one of the film’s inorganic quirks. Much like seeing a wolf and cub John in the woods where wolves aren’t said to roam – which certainly means something, but Stefano Pieces scenario can never bother telling us what’s going on. Or as Aaron’s twin brother (also played by Spruell), who appears once Aaron is lost at sea to make a thorny play for his contented widowed sister-in-law, whose stupid belated story makes it more redundant than it initially appears.
There’s nothing wrong with the movie, which would have passed the time comfortably enough had it happened on some streaming platform while waiting for the spin cycle to finish. But there is a lot exactly Wrong with that, not least the unsettling feeling that he’s actively erasing himself from your memory even while you’re watching. The violence is tamed, the love story is chaste and disappointing, and the plot of redemption is quite a normative issue. It may be set during 24 hour daylight, but there is a low power idle around ‘The Hanging Sun’ which makes one wander and check their watch to see if it may not be past bedtime.
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