Cliched but still scarily claustrophobic.
Black Sea
Grade: C+
Director: Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland)
Screenplay: Dennis Kelly
Cast: Jude Law (Dom Hemingway), Scott McNairy (Argo)
Rating: R
Runtime: 115 min.
by John DeSando
“I lost my family because of this job.” Captain Robinson (Jude Law)
It’s dark and dangerous under the entombing Black Sea, and the crew assembled by Cpt. Robinson in the film of the same name goes there by sub to retrieve several million dollars in gold from a sunken Nazi U boat.
Although this subgenre actioner misses no clichéd character or event, director Kevin Macdonald makes sure to flesh out second-tier characters and create a claustrophobic world faintly reminiscent of Das Boot.
Still, witness the stock characters: the troubled captain (Law), the murderous psycho (Ben Mendelsohn), the cowardly corporate guy (Scott McNairy), and the green but good young recruit (Bobby Schofield). As exciting as the action can be, even the awesome outside-the-sub walk to the gold has more than one clichéd moment (stepping off the cliff!).
The remarkable part of this formulaic adventure is the intense performance of Jude Law. As he did in last year’s ignored small masterpiece, Dom Hemingway, he takes the blue-collar character and elevates it to Greek drama. Although in Black Sea nothing that happens is unexpected, Law conveys a sincere care for his crew (especially a young newbie) that emerges from his memorably expressive eyes to his tough body movements. His understanding of the price he pays for the adventure is the essence of the opening quote.
Yes, the captain is called on to be almost super human in the presence of hardened multi nationals like frisky Russians. Unlike Cpt. Kirk of Star Trek, his decisions are not inspired, just dogged like almost any average human’s would be. In that strength, he is more of a hero than the most flamboyant Marvel comic lead character.
The theme of working class versus captains of industry is prominent, in the way it was for the exemplary Snowpiercer last year and Metropolis, where I believe the war of the classes in cinema began in earnest. Even though after all the U-Boat films I have seen, a new director can still make me feel claustrophobic if he is as good as Macdonald.
Black Sea ends a bit more creatively than your usually uplifting undersea drama; it still is in the formula of a good but not spectacular thriller. I’m ok with that as long as it is just as partially smart as this one.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
