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Dec 01, 2014 By Zach Hollwedel Web Exclusive

In the midst of Norway’s 1980s oil boom, Norwegian and U.S. teams constructing a pipeline hundreds of meters below the surface routinely dive to the ocean floor. Petter (Aksel Hennie) is one of the project’s top divers, until a tragic accident leaves his brother—and dive partner—dead. Convinced human error caused his brother’s demise, Petter launches a one-man investigation; the more he discovers, the more he endangers not only the international partnership, but his very life itself.

Director Erik Skjoldbjærg’s film offers an amazing opportunity to experience the dark depths of the ocean, while paying homage to 1980s filmmaking. The result—complete with camera angles, framing, and other stylistic choices idiosyncratic to the ’80s—feels wonderfully contemporary to the events that Pioneer depicts. If only the film were as exciting narratively as it is technically. The mystery takes too long to unfold (as if afraid of surfacing too quickly), characters come and go before the audience fully bonds with them, and the two-hour buildup rapidly drains before the climax, leaving viewers feeling somewhat adrift.

www.magpictures.com/pioneer

Author rating: 5.5/10