Black Sea
(2014)
(SPOILERS) I like a good submarine movie. Black Sea has a few things going for it, chiefly Kevin McDonald getting diligently behind the inherent claustrophobia and tension of being cocooned in a great watery coffin, but it’s continually hamstrung by Dennis Kelly’s ridiculous script, which does its best to undermine any investment in the characters and their goal, a stash of Nazi gold in sunken U-boat beneath the Black Sea.
Kelly came up with Utopia,
which, for its first series at any rate, was intriguing and different, so maybe
he should be given some slack. Or maybe not, since he also contributed to Pulling. Laid off by his salvage firm,
Jude Law’s Robinson (or McRobinson; you can tell he’s Scottish on account of
his accent, which some have not unfairly compared to Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons) promptly has the prospect
of rescuing $40m in gold from a U-boat sunk off Georgia thrown in his lap. Of
course, it’s a dangerous exercise, requiring the salvagers to avoid the Russian
navy. He picks a mixture of British and Russian crewmembers, having secured the
backing of a mysterious financier (Tobias Menzies) and obtained a rusting hulk
of a sub, and off he goes.
So at least the picture doesn’t waste any time sailing
forth. Unfortunately, its shorthand also evidences just how rudimentary much of
the motivation here will be. “He’s a
psychopath” is the introductory comment on Ben Mendelsohn’s Fraser (Ben
Mendelsohn, playing a nutter, whatever next?) “But a good diver” responds McRobinson. Which gives Kelly, clearly
enamoured of psychos if Utopia is any
indication, free licence to create any amount of mayhem that will be the death
of most of the crew. If Fraser were as unstable as is shown here, it would
surely have manifested before. But Kelly’s trying to do a The Treasure of the Sierra Madre thing, having gold fever gradually
tip its crewmen over the edge (except the only ones who exhibit this are the
dogged McRobinson and the crazy guy who’s crazy anyway).
Since there’s little in the way of externalised threat, the
enemy must be from within, which means the only conflicts can come from
hopelessly contrived scenarios. Along for the ride is Scoot McNairy’s
duplicitous company man Daniels, who is basically Burke from Aliens right down to locking marines
crewmen in with the aliens invading ocean (At one point McRobinson even
paraphrases Ripley; “Men are dead!”).
Except that, when it reaches the point where he is attempting to manipulate
Fraser (who has already got them into a fine mess by murdering Konstantin
Khabenskiy’s Blackie for no discernible or sensible reason other than that he’s
a psycho and psychos always go round murdering people in confined spaces at the
drop of a hat, especially when it puts their own lives in extreme peril; he
also has a disconcerting habit of crying about the danger they’re in two
minutes later, which he manufactured)
into killing another crewman, he seems entirely clueless as to the potential
consequences. This is writing designed to progress the plot, which it does, but
it’s at the expense of the remotest suspension of disbelief.
Robinson’s entire venture comes across as hopelessly
ill-equipped and planned as it is, but as it happens the expedition would have
worked out fine and dandy (irrespective of what would happen when they got to
the surface) if only he had taken the time not
to bring that meddlesome psychopath aboard. Or brought two good divers along,
so the insane one could be locked up when he starts his killing spree. Still,
Macdonald has assembled a strong cast. McLaw’s appropriately bulky, McNairy and
Mendelsohn sing from familiarly dependable song sheets and Michael Smiley and
David Threlfall give it some salty old sea dog. There are effective individual
sequences too; Macdonald knows how to ratchet up the tension.
But that makes it the greater pity that Black Sea isn’t just hackneyed, it’s frustratingly aggressive in
its distaste for internal logic. A sub crew on a quest for lost Nazi treasure
is the stuff of great potential (as recent news stories attest), but Macdonald’s picture depth charges it.
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