Review of Flood (2007) by Luke B — 25 Jul 2012

This is a review of the 3 hour miniseries version, rather than the heavily edited 100 minute cut. I had originally only planned to watch Part 1 today, but I was sucked in and quickly put on Part 2. That has to say something.

The film certainly grabbed me, but I must admit to being a sucker for disaster movies. It had all the twists and turns you would expect. Cruel public officials, broken marriages, scientists deemed crackpots turning out to be right all along.

With three hours to get through, it certainly covers all the angles. After a storm hits Scotland, it soon becomes apparent that the storm will sweep along the east coast of England and eventually flood London.

The cast is varied from bad roles and bad performances, bad roles but good performances, and passable roles good performances. Carlyle and Gilsig are the usual divorced couple, forced back together by this natural disaster.

Courtenay is Carlyle's estranged father, they are also forced back together due to the flood, as they all happen to work within the parameters of the same field. Most notable are smaller performances from Nigel Planer as the head of the MET office who failed to predict the storm.

He feels genuine grief over the tragedy he could have helped avoided and an early performance by Tom Hardy. He is the only real person that feels human throughout. He has some completely unrelated dialogue regarding his mates and a dog.

It is perhaps the only time we hear somebody talk about something other than the weather. Seeing a big disaster in England is a welcome change and the effects were actually quite good. The film does have many flaws though.

It is incredibly predictable and the bulk of dialogue is exposition or corny family feuds. The editing is annoying, as it constantly freezes and shows us the time, or flashes back to something we saw just minutes a go.

The music is very repetitive. I had the main 'dramatic' tune down within 3 minutes (no exaggeration). Towards the end of the second part, all the real threat is over with and they spend a good forty minutes unflooding London.

This makes for a film that has reached its climax much earlier. However, if you like seeing disaster films just to see how different parts of the government would react, this is mostly competent.