Black Sea (2015) Directed by Kevin Macdonald. Starring: Jude Law, Scoot McNairy, & Ben Mendelsohn. IMDB says: “In order to make good with his former employers, a submarine captain takes a job with a shadowy backer to search the depths of the Black Sea for a submarine rumored to be loaded with gold.”
Directed by Kevin MacDonald, Black Sea stars Jude Law as Robinson, a recently laid off submarine operator who is still struggling with his divorce from his wife and estrangement from his son. After his lay off, Robinson is out drinking with friends to drown his sorrows. One of the men was also recently laid off from the same company, Aurora, and tells the group that the company recently found gold deep under the Black Sea. A U-Boat sunk while caring the gold from the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany as a pay off. Robinson decides to get funding for a submarine and to rally a team to salvage the gold.
Jude Law is really good as Robinson. It seems like he put a lot into the role. Scoot McNairy also plays a prominent character in the film, a man who works for the financier of the excursion who is forced to keep an eye on things from inside the submarine. The rest of the crew is made up of actors who generally have smaller roles, but they all did well to make their characters believable. There really wasn’t a blemish, which is nice considering the size of the ensemble.
Black Sea’s set up is an interesting take on the heist movie. The added danger of being underwater was utilized fully by the filmmakers. Numerous problems arise during the heist that create a lot of tension between different members of the crew. Sometimes though these issues were foreshadowed very obviously so that you would just be waiting for the incident to occur. This took away the surprise of some of the story. On the positive side, the depiction of the claustrophobic setting was effective. To keep things visually interesting, colored lighting made the repetitive spaces more dynamic.
It seems exactly like the type of movie that you would see released in January. It doesn’t have the flash of a summer popcorn flick, but it is still a really solid film. In the underwater shots of the submarine, it was noticeable enough that CGI was used that it was hard to allow yourself to believe it was a real sub. Also, if some aspects of the plot’s layout changed it could have improved the experience. That’s not to say that the story was bad, however. The premise is interesting and the execution was fine. It just doesn’t seem like the type of movie you would be excited to recommend to others unless they specifically like this style of film.
