Review of Deepwater Horizon (2016) by Matt C — 16 Jan 2017

It would seem to be tricky to make a thriller out of a real-life disaster that killed 11 people, had immediate effects lasting about three months, and led to hundreds of millions of gallons of oil being leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

Telling the story personally would likely help avoid possible exploitation, and that's mostly the case here. Although it would have been nice to be shown the widespread impact that the Deepwater Horizon disaster had on the world instead of simply getting the adrenaline rush of it all, Peter Berg's tense direction paired with strong performances from the film's ensemble help create for a disaster movie that's satisfying than most.

I would describe the plot here, but basically the film is a dramatization of the disaster on the titular oil rig that took place on April 20, 2010, focusing on a select group of real life people played by Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Gina Rodriguez, and more.

Everyone onscreen does a very good job, both in presence and the drama that they're able to carry. This is also due to the script written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Matthew Sand, which surprisingly enough, establishes and fleshes out these characters enough to distinguish and care about them in the first act.

This alone is a surprise for a movie of this sort--you can see failures of quasi-attempts at this in Sully. Now, regarding Peter Berg, I personally don't have much of an opinion on him given Lone Survivor, his previous collaboration with Wahlberg, didn't do much for me.

It was okay, but I forgot about it almost immediately and it had no impact on me. Here, though, he seems to be in better shape as a filmmaking, especially given all of the chaos onscreen. One thing that's nice is that the script takes its time before the shit hits the fan, and it lets the pressure build (no pun intended) before everything goes haywire.

Once disaster strikes, though, Berg keeps a steady hand on tracking all of the characters through the oil rig. Many scenes are crosscut and they involve really good pacing for the most part, balancing intensity.

It's definitely a stressful viewing. Where the film fell a little bit short for me was its conclusion in two ways: the disaster sequence goes on for a bit too long; and the lack of scale is a little disappointing.

Once the disaster strikes at about 40 minutes in or so, it continues almost until the very end of the movie. Berg, Carnahan, and Sand could have cut out a bit of repetition and gone to an exploration of the disaster's impacts, but those are saved for the obligatory series of title cards at the end that say what happened afterwards.

What was nice was that the director and writers had a voice as to who was the blame for all of this (as if it wasn't obvious already), but I would have liked to here more about it. There's an indictment of money-hungry businesses that don't care about the lives of others that pops up for a scene, and while I'm happy that it wasn't jammed down the audiences' throats, I wish that there was more of it.

Deepwater Horizon succeeds in the portrayal of its real-life counterparts and manages to keep what could be in poor taste relatively horrifying and scary, complete with enough grime to plug every faucet in the world.

Berg's direction is tight and largely stays on the right path, and although the movie doesn't quite have the impact that it could have, I appreciate the more personal elements to it. Some things don't quite pay off, but overall, it achieves its job.

7.7/10, good, one thumb up, above average, etc.