"Escape" — aka "Flukt", as it's referred to in its native tongue — is a Norwegian period piece set in a post-Black Plague medieval world. Signe is a 19-year old peasant girl traveling the countryside in search of a better life. But when her family is murdered by a roaming pack of huntsmen, her life is forever changed as she finds herself enslaved by her ruthless captors.
The merciless pack is led by a rather unorthodox leader named Dagmar, a strong matriarch figurehead with a bizarre singular goal: Have a male in her pack impregnate the recently captured Signe in order to give her adoptive daughter, Frigg, the gift of a younger sister. When Frigg ends up releasing Signe, the duo are suddenly on the lamb, with the pack closely nipping at their heels for basically the rest of the film.
Figg eventually reveals to Signe that her parents were also killed by the horde and that she was basically raised by Dagmar as her own kin. Despite being outnumbered and overpowered, the pair manages to outwit its captors at every turn, eventually separated only to be reunited in a blood-laced finale. Along the way, the two girls build a kindred bound in their struggle for freedom. The irony lies in the fact that while Signe was supposed to be forced to bear Figg a sibling, the duo instead ends up bonding like sisters.
"Escape" is set against the background of the magnificent Norwegian countryside, a landscape so picturesque that it almost itself becomes a secondary character. Unfortunately, the stunning scenery is but a waste when compared to the rather mundane storyline. The plot putters along, managing to stay interesting enough but not necessarily thrilling at any particular time. In fact, the whole premise is predictable enough that, within the first 10 minutes, viewers could easily map out the entire story in their heads.
The lead characters are mere caricatures of lesser roles from better films. "Escape" simply lacks the depth necessary to pull off the grandiose nature of the plot. It's like a condensed, pontificating version of "Braveheart" or "The Lord of the Rings." There is a singular goal to escape tyranny and oppression, but it's just expressed in the most demure manner of storytelling. Clocking in at a shocking 80 minutes at length, "Escape" falls about an hour short of epic. On the other hand, it's difficult to imagine a story this drab being stretched out to two hours, so perhaps the film was doomed from the start.
The Blu-ray extras are fairly barebones, which adds to the overall disappointment of "Escape." There is a lame attempt at showing a behind-the-scenes look at the visual effects with no narrative and no interviews to accompany the piece. There is also an all-too-forgettable blooper reel that isn't even worth watching. Rounding out the bizarre special features is a deleted scenes section, which only serves as a reminder as to how one-dimensional the film is to begin with.
Film: 2.5 Yaps Extras: 1.5 Yaps
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ozf407ofbY]