Review: ‘Nuuk,’ a twisty love story

And what a striking sight it is — this first ever Filipino film to be shot in Greenland.

Veronica Velasco’s film Nuuk takes us to the bleak and sunless sub-zero capital of Greenland, where the snow blinds the eyes, teenagers kill themselves over broken hearts and most folks melt their frozen blood with alcohol.

Living alone in the unforgiving tundra climate, in a cold and long snowy winter, is a Filipina named Elaisa (a makeup-free Alice Dixson). We catch her trudging through deep snow on the way to a pharmacy. And what a striking sight it is — this first ever Filipino film to be shot in Greenland. This alien world, beautiful and harsh. An endless gray punctuated with brightly colored houses.

It’s sinister and lonely. And your anticipation grows as you look forward to what this breathtakingly lensed psychological-thriller will bring.

So Elaisa arrives at the counter wearing a parka and a desperate face. But as soon as she opens her mouth, the film’s atmospheric visuals and somber mood are abruptly shattered. Elaisa talks in a whiny, melodramatic sing-songy tone of voice reminiscent of old, bad television. It felt like the beginning of a juvenile rom-com.

Then, to make it worse, Elaisa begs a refill of her Prozac without prescription, because she needed “to sleep.” Oh no. It immediately goes downhill from there.

Prozac is a common antidepressant, not a sedative. In fact, feeling drowsy with Prozac, or falling asleep with that drug, is a bad side effect that requires medical attention. Perhaps what she (or the script) really needed is temazepam? Or any kind of benzodiazepine? Like the common Valium? The one Sarah Geronimo purchased in Miss Granny without an Rx, as if they were multivitamins?

The pharmacy wouldn’t fill her bottle, so, like a child that was refused a lollipop, she turns away with a huff. Then lo and behold! A man walking away is carrying a bottle of Prozac. Elaisa’s mutant eyesight can zoom in on the tiny label of the man’s pill bottle. The guy turns around. It’s Aga Muhlach. A reunion, after their 1992 Sinungaling Mong Puso.

So Elaisa asks the man, Mark Alvarez (Muhlach), for some Prozac, to get her through until her next appointment with her psychiatrist. Mark doesn’t suggest that if Elaisa needed to sleep, what she needs is an entirely different drug. Or maybe just a cup of chamomile tea? Nevertheless, he gives in to her request and they exchange numbers.

It’s hard to ignore that glaring Prozac mistake, especially when we soon see Elaisa taking more than one pill in one sitting (oddly, swallowing them dry before taking a swig of alcohol) to knock her out. Maybe she is diagnosed with depression, too, but you never see depressive traits in Elaisa. She just acts like a childish woman and a nagging mother to Karl (Ujarneq Fleischer), a young, promiscuous and alcoholic man who speaks Greenlandic when frustrated.

Will this reunion movie of Alice Dixson and Aga Muhlach end happily?

Elaisa becomes attached to Mark and they go on dates. Muhlach, thankfully, gives a nuanced, committed performance, but this makes him and Dixson feel as if they are acting in two different movies. Dixson’s performance is incredibly out of place, and as the antiheroine in this forced tale, her character is half-baked. We know nothing about her, except she is an insomniac widow, an alcoholic and doesn’t get along with her son.

There’s one climactic scene when a psychiatric patient is wheeled to a recreation room, where a huge TV is playing a suicide news report. Really? Showing mental patients a sensitive, triggering topic?

You can sense a great struggle in the film to create an “intelligent” psycho-thriller. Sadly, a gorgeous cinematography, sound design and fascinating location cannot redeem a flawed story that lacks subtlety and research. There is no sense of thrill, fear or suspense — just lots of contrivances in order to create strained plot twists and weak red herrings.

However, the film is never dull. The surreal, dreamlike location of Nuuk, as well as your strong curiosity about how the movie will conclude, will ferry you until the end. And as the first Filipino film to be shot in Greenland (and it is lensed beautifully!), the film’s visuals will haunt you long after you’ve left the cinema.

‘Nuuk’ will premiere in the Philippines at the 5th Danish Film Festival at Shangri-La Plaza from 9 to 13 October 2019 and will have its commercial release on 6 November 2019.