"Number 24," Action ‧ 2025 Robert Daniels
Jan. 1, 2025, Roger Ebert Movie Review
Based on the real-life story of World War II resistance fighter Gunnar Sønsteby, Norwegian director John Andreas Andersen’s “Number 24” is a sturdy, handsomely mounted period piece depicting the emotional toll required for freedom. It begins with an elderly Sønsteby (Erik Hivju) preparing to speak to a group of young students in Rjukan.
Andersen’s observational camera takes a documentary approach, leaning on evocative zooms to capture a nervous Sønsteby anxiously biting down on a stick before appearing on stage. He has given this speech many times, but it’s clear the accessing of these difficult memories — “the fifth drawer in his mind” as he calls it — still causes him immeasurable distress.
The framing device for “Number 24” is obvious but no less effective: Through Sønsteby’s lecture we jump back and forth from his presentation to his memories. We leap backwards to 1937 Rjukan. Sønsteby (Sjur Vatne Brean) is hiking in the mountains with his best friend Erling Solheim (Jakob Maanum Trulsen). Elsewhere, the Nazis are burning books, but only one of these men is frightened. Solheim believes the Nazis aren’t so bad; they’re only targeting communists. Sønsteby, as you can guess, has other thoughts on the matter. The ideological split between friends will fade into the background but will nevertheless be felt in every scene of this nerve-wracking drama.
Despite the intense tone of the film and its opening scene, the young Sønsteby is rarely flustered. He is a single-minded, meticulous planner whose quiet doggedness makes him an appealing recruit for Norway’s ragtag resistance. Sønsteby becomes part of the army, then becomes a publisher of anti-Nazi tracts, before finally finding his place as a spy code-named “Number 24.” Soon, Sønsteby’s high-profile missions put him in the crosshairs of the Nazis...
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/number-24-movie-review
= new reply since forum marked as read
