BLACK SEA
Directed by Kevin Macdonald
Written by Dennis Kelly
Starring: Jude Law
This is a tidy little suspense film that might be missed by people who may like it. We were pleasantly surprised at how nicely it filled a February afternoon.
Jude Law (in a very good performance) plays a Captain Robinson, a fellow whose been put out to pasture by the salvage company he works for. He and two friends are approached about salvaging treasure from a German U-boat that has been undersea since WW II, full of Russian gold bullion intended to buy off Nazi aggression.
Robinson puts together his team and it’s not long before things go awry on the hulk of a sub they take undersea. The crew has language issues, trust issues, age issues and the common problem that splitting the treasure equally among a dozen men seems unpalatable to some of them.
There are just enough twists and turns here to keep the viewer on his toes. On the negative side, the men, other than Law and an actor playing a seventeen year old, are never much differentiated. But it is not a character study after all, and it is certainly good enough for a January release. I wonder how Liam Neeson let this one get by him. Recommended.
Patti Abbott
