“Oh my goodness this was one of the most intense two hour periods I’ve ever sat thru, at least at the movies. Jude Law leads this claustrophobic thriller about a team in a submarine searching for lost Nazi treasure. The sense of danger built and built and built throughout the film as one thing after another would go wrong.
It began just with tension between the group: half of them Russian, half of them British, all of them untrusting of the others. Then, of course, the old submarine started to have issues. Then the tensions got higher, then there were more issues, and it was just non-stop. Even when it was over, I still couldn’t catch my breath.
Law was incredible. I expected his character to follow a certain path, but he went to dark places I didn’t expect, which raised the stakes and set all bets off. I went from early in the movie marveling at how they made him not hot (combination of receding hairline and harsh accent) to being in awe of the way he commanded the screen in unexpected ways. Not that it was unexpected that he could command a screen, just again, unexpected where his character went.
With it’s limited run and unfortunate January release date, this movie is likely to get lost in the shuffle. I know I barely had it on my radar, and even then couldn’t get a good handle on when it’d be out. But it’s worth seeking out if you’re tired of prestige pictures and need to find some solid entertainment in this graveyard release period.
Black Sea – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/”