Kon-Tiki

Kon-Tike directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, starring Pal Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo Chrsiansen, Tobias Santelmann, Gustaf Skarsgard, Jakob Oftebro.

This movie is very similar visually to Ang Lee's Life of Pi.  But where as that movie was more of  a metaphorical, spiritual, and allegorical journey, Kon-Tike is a historical, non-fictional, and reality based story.  Now I'm not saying everything that happened in this movie actually happened but the main characters did travel over 5000 miles on a wooden raft built only from materials around the time period of the culture the main character Thor was studying.  I found this movie thoroughly engrossing as I can't imagine the amount of balls and guts Thor had to do what he did just to prove a theory he had.  On the surface what he did doesn't sound all that great but to visually see how they traveled those 5000 miles is quite another thing and only adds to the story.  Another thing that makes this movie good is that it comes in right around the 90 minute mark, so there's not a lot of time to commit to watching this movie and the film makers keep the movie riding along at a good pace. 

I just really enjoyed this movie as it chronicled the exploits of Thor and his friends from him first coming up with the theory he has, to fully realizing his theory in physical form the only way he could, which was to build a raft and set out to do what was in theoretical form in his mind.  It's a total explorer based movie where the exploration is everything that drives the movie forward as the visuals totally help the sell the exploration theme and back it up one hundred percent because these characters are seeing things and documenting things never before seen.  

The movie does a good job creating the characters that travel with him and showing how the strain and isolation of being on a raft can play games with the mind.  The raft itself becomes an extra character in the movie as it also starts to break down from the strain of isolation on being on the open sea for that long of a time.  This movie had a very old school feel to it that many movies from Hollywood clearly lack now-a-days.  It's a thoroughly enjoyable movie well worth your time to see.