• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Jan 22, 2015 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

After 11 years of dedicated service to a job that consumed his life and alienated his family, Robinson (Jude Law) is let go from his position as a submarine pilot for a marine salvage company. With the backing of a mysterious, wealthy benefactor, Robinson assembles a half-Scottish, half-Russian submarine crew to search for a treasure rumored to lie on the floor of the Black Sea: a German u-boat stuffed with Nazi gold. The vessel is located in contested waters, directly underneath the Russian naval fleet—making an already-unsafe dive in their half-functioning, Cold War-era sub that much more dangerous.

Tracking twelve desperate men on a hazardous mission, Kevin MacDonald’s Black Sea runs on the same tightly-wound, masculine tension that fueled classics like Wages of Fear (or its remake, Sorcerer) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. As claustrophobia wears the men down and distrust builds behind their communication barriers, violence erupts and sides are taken in a standoff that must be dissolved if the crew is to work together and pilot their vessel to safety. The film’s two most recognizable actors—Jude Law, and Ben Mendolsohn as an unhinged diving specialist—blend in perfectly to the superbly-cast, multi-lingual ensemble. Playwright Dennis Kelly’s debut screenplay reads like it was written for the stage: fast, sharp, and driven by the characters’ persistent power battles. Kevin MacDonald transposes this well into the film’s grim, underwater setting; his direction and framing are limited by the tight surroundings, which actually work in the feature’s favor. All of these elements come together to make Black Sea a tense, old-fashioned thriller.

www.focusfeatures.com/Black_Sea

Author rating: 7.5/10