PLOT: On their way to promote a book, a couple pulls over on a snowy Norwegian road to let a blizzard pass. After a bit of shuteye, they wake up to find themselves buried under snow and ice. Or as the lamens refer to it as… f*cked!
LOWDOWN: In the vein of FROZEN (Adam Green) and OPEN WATER, CENTIGRADE (WATCH IT HERE) is a claustrophobic story about surviving the elements where a couple must fight to live or freeze to death in the hellscape that is a Norway winter. “Inspired by true events,” which is a line I never believe but for the sake of immersion, I’ll bite and accept this tale as “somewhat” true. Matt (Vincent Piazza) and Naomi (Genesis Rodriguez) nod off while waiting for better weather only to find that they’re in a shitty situation that’s only getting worse. As someone who hates snow with a biblical passion, I can honestly say that this would be a personal hell for me and if I got anything from CENTIGRADE, it is that you should never drive anywhere could and rural. EVER.
This is a hard one to review because of its single location, and anything of interest would be considered a spoiler, so I’ll do my best to leave this as vague as I can while still giving you my straight to the point opinion. CENTRIGRADE is only “horror” in its situational dread, but this baby is really a character piece from beginning to end. Everything relies on how well Piazza and Rodriguez can sell us their struggle and relationship. Do we give a damn about these two enough to sit next to them in one space for ninety minutes? I’d argue, yes (for the most part). The most vital aspect is Matt and Naomi’s descent into darkness, and (besides a few odd choices) they sell the hell out this terrible situation and make my hate for the cold that much stronger.
I like Piazza a lot (BOARDWALK EMPIRE anyone?), and it’s good to see him play against his go-to tough-guy Italian type as the soft-spoken (if a bit too sensitive) Matt. He’s the pragmatic one who knows staying put is the safest bet while the ready-to-pop pregnant Naomi tends to be the wild card. This is hard to juggle because writers Daley Nixon and Brendan Walsh come awfully close to making Naomi unlikeable as she seems almost irrationally stubborn at first. Still, her charm and acting chops come through, and in the end, she’s the heart of the story. As time goes on, we get to witness their mental deterioration (from dwindling food and water) and the loss of hope. This is when things kick in and where CENTIGRADE is at its best. Dealing with the impending frostbite, the ice surrounding the car that isn’t melting, and the torture of solitary confinement that’s seeping through, this gets DARK and fires on all cylinders when it does.
A cool visual that I really dug was the car’s everchanging state (hats off to director Brendan Walsh). As time goes by, the freezing weather changes the car’s interior covering more of it with ice while changing the color to a haunted house looking grey, which is a smart way to “show” time and how their state of mind is changing as well. Naomi starts giggling only for the camera to pan up with this beautiful top-down shot of her losing her sh*t. It’s these creative choices that help CENTIGRADE avoid the visual struggle of the one-room environment.
So is there anything wrong with this horror-esq survival tale? There are a couple of things that irked me. One, it can feel sluggish at times with not much happening at times. They break up the monotony with some aerial shots of their buried car and the adjacent road, but even with the cold seeping in, there isn’t a lot going on to justify a theatrical runtime. I think some scenes with the couple before the storm could have fleshed things out more as we don’t get a great sense of who they are together. I think somethings may have been cut because a particular character is listed in IMDB that is not in the movie. We also get an annoying scene with a cellphone (I won’t spoil it) that may have sounded good in theory but did not work out in actuality. I understand that emotions can run high in intense situations, but I slammed my drink in frustration here. Were in a pandemic here and booze ain’t cheap!
GORE: No gore or blood to be seen here. We get some nasty frostbite and the horrors of a Norwegian winter.
BOTTOM LINE: CENTIGRADE works best as it’s intended, a story of survival with average folks trying to make it out of a near-impossible situation. Overall this succeeds because of its two leads giving it their all. With lesser talent, this would have collapsed under its own weight but stays the course because of Rodriguez and Piazza’s performances. It did drag a bit at times, and though they (Rodriguez and Piazza) own the film, I wasn’t sold on them as a couple. Maybe some added scenes before the storm or even a flashback or two may have helped this, but overall, I enjoyed what CENTIGRADE had to offer. If winter stresses you out as much as it does me (or even if it doesn’t), give this chilling movie a look.