Review of Black Sea (2014) by Alasdair B — 14 Mar 2015

"Black Sea'' is a film directed by Kevin Macdonald. The cast includes Jude Law, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, and David Threlfall. The film starts with Robinson (Law) being fired from his job as an underwater scavenger. His job was to search the ocean floor for wealth and sunken submarines. However, unmanned subs are taking over, and man driven subs are no longer needed. Robinson is devastated by this news. Sitting in the bar, a Russian friend of his named Blackie informs him of an old German submarine from WWII that sunk of the cost of Georgia. Supposedly, the vessel is filled with millions of dollars worth of gold. A backer named Lewis and his executive, Daniels (McNairy) agree to fund the expedition. Robinson takes his crew of several crew members--50% of them British and 50% of them Russian--to the deep depths of the ocean; into the black sea.

Jude Law is a very fine actor. Out of all the solid performances in this film, Law gives the best. He is absolutely fantastic in this. He gives a very subtle and intense performance. I was also impressed by Ben Mendelsohn in this, who seems to enjoy working with Scoot McNairy. They both starred in Killing Them Softly, and are back again here. McNairy is a really great actor and I love seeing him pop up in little roles here and there. He does a good job in this film, despite the fact that his character feels a little out of place.

As far as direction goes, Macdonald does a brilliant job. He really makes you feel as if you are trapped down there with these guys. The script has allot of well written dialogue. It does however give characters generic lines from time to time, but overall the script is solid enough. The cinematography is very good, and the set pieces are fantastic. The inside of the submarine looks completely real, old and grimy. It's all rusted with levers and buttons and port holes. The score by Ilan Eshkeri is very haunting, adding to the tension felt throughout.

What this film does best at is making you feel trapped. It's very constricting, and you feel like you're actually in there with the crew. Allot of this has to do with the great direction and production design. The film just feels so claustrophobic. The constant thought on your mind is, what's going to happen. The deal is the crew members have to split the gold between each other. Obviously, some think this is unfair, and consider killing off the ones they deem worthy. You never quite know who to trust. You never know who might snap and do something horrible to another crew member. This is the central driving question of the film and it's what kept me invested and captivated. I was captivated for the entire run time of this movie.

The flaws of the film aren't to glaring, but they are there. The first twenty minutes feel very rushed. The characters are introduced and things are set up rather quickly. It felt as if I couldn't catch up with what was going on. Once they get on the submarine however, everything becomes more steady and interesting. The only interesting character here is Robinson. He has a family drama thing going on that you sort of care about. All the other characters aren't very memorable. There is a young boy on the ship who is going to have a child soon, but the rest of the crew are nasty gruff guys you don't really get to know. That being said, it was hard at first to care about some of them. However when they are facing the possibility of death, you really feel frightened for them. Lastly, I wasn't a huge fan of McNairy's character. He wasn't annoying per say, but he didn't feel like he needed to be there.

"Black Sea'' may feel a bit familiar to other submarine dramas, but it is a very effective thriller in the end. Aside from minor flaws--but still somewhat noticeable-- this is a very tension filled film that keeps you on edge the entire time. Jude Law is fantastic, the acting is great, the camera work is sharp, the sets are well made, and there are even some briefly emotional moments.