Review of Dead Calm (1989) by Kiran V — 28 Oct 2009

Rae: Is that boat sinking.

Hughie: Well, past tense would be more appropriate.

A well made thriller, isolating the characters on the ocean to create genuine tension, complete with quality performances from all three leads, outweighing the standard thriller elements that make others fall apart.

Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill star as Rae and John Ingram. John has arrived home from duty at sea, only to find that his wife has gone through a horrific traffic collision, causing the death of their son. Weeks later, the couple are now at sea, on their yacht, trying to move past their loss. During this time, the couple comes across another vessel, with a lone man soon rowing towards them on a dingy. The man is Hughie, played by Billy Zane, who informs them that the rest of his crew died of food poisoning. Hughie is given shelter; however, while he is sleeping, John takes the dingy and heads to the abandoned schooner.

Upon discovering this, while John is still on the other ship, Hughie begins to worry. John of course discovers that Hughie wasn't quite on the level with his story, but its too late. Hughie knocks out Rae and sales off with the yacht. Now it is up to Rae to find a way out of her situation of being trapped with a sociopath, all while John attempts to chase after the two of them in the sinking schooner that he is now stuck with.

As a thriller, everything is done the way it should be for its premise. The setting provides a claustrophobic amount of tension and the way the plot moves forward is handled quite well. Billy Zane is an actor I've always enjoyed and wished got to become a bigger star. His villainous character encompasses elements of a crazy person, a charismatic person, and boiling rage all for the better. The chemistry that develops between him and Kidman is wonderful. And speaking of Kidman, she is great here as well. Then you have Sam Neill, playing a character stuck on another boat and just can't catch a break, as his seamanship is put to the test.

I found the scoring for the film quite interesting as well. It is a mix of genre film suspense building tension combined with another element that I found quite unique.

The only problems I see come from a couple standard thriller elements, that if changed, would end the film about twenty minutes early. The ending also has a couple of false beats before finally closing. Still, I was entertained throughout this film and found it to be well acted and handled for the most part.

Hughie: They thought they were better than me.