Operation Napoleon: Frozen Conspiracy is the third feature film from Icelandic director Óskar Thór Axelsson (Black’s Game, I Remember You) and follows lawyer Kristin (Vivian Ólafsdóttir) as she is pulled into a global conspiracy after her brother stumbles across a lost Nazi aircraft trapped in the snow. With only old friend Steve (Jack Fox) to turn to for safety, Kristin must evade the pursuit of CIA Director William Carr (Iain Glenn) and German agent Simon (Wotan Wilke Möhring). She has to unravel a conspiracy that dates all the way back to the second world war, or die trying.

Now from a premise like that, you’d expect a great deal of this film to actually focus on this mysterious aircraft and what acquiring it actually means. You’d want to see consequences and have elements that you figure out for yourself spread throughout the film so the ultimate reveal is rewarding for the audience who have spent two hours trying to fit the puzzle together. So you may be disappointed to find out that the ultimate reveal, the final answer to all the film’s questions, is given to you in about ten minutes at the end where Steve info-dumps some conspiracy theories about Nazis on you while historical footage plays over the dialogue. I’m not saying this a terrible ending that invalidates the effort spent setting up a mostly compelling mystery, but I’m also not denying that might be the case.

The Marteinn Thorisson penned screenplay often feels like it is playing against some genuinely good direction from Axelsson. His direction does a great job at capturing the thrilling pace that an otherwise empty narrative moves along at. There’s a strong sense of conspiracy and paranoia running throughout the film, that is helped with some particularly tight cinematography from Árni Filippusson who does their best work when capturing the desolation of the Icelandic wilderness and it harsh, subzero environments. The style is really doing its best to carry the substance, although I don’t know how much of that substance is a shared issue with the original Arnaldur Indridason novel.

It is Operation Napoleon’s casting that is really the glue holding the film together here. Ólafsdóttir’s central performance as Kristin is a compelling and often vulnerable portrayal of a fugitive, and her chemistry with Fox’s Steve makes the pair a fun double act where the romantic tension between the two feels quite genuine. Glenn’s villainous turn as Carr is great, bringing a sense of sly menace to the role that really shines during his more manipulative moments. Although the performance I enjoyed the most was Adele Oni’s small role as Carr’s right hand goon Julie Ratoff. When she first appears as a charming researcher to trick some guys you get a sense of a villainous intelligence, and Oni brings a level of camp evil that is actually quite welcome in an otherwise po-faced production.

Operation Napoleon: Frozen Conspiracy is a visual strong attempt to make a compelling, if a little conceptually ridiculous, mystery thriller that doesn’t quite ever hit a strong stride as the pacing is all over the place and central mystery just isn’t revealed to you in a meaningful or rewarding manner. I strongly suspect that Óskar Thór Axelsson is a better director than this film lets on.