Taught waterbound concept thriller from Philip Noyce before Jack Ryan, The Bone Collector and Salt. I love the terrifying mystery of the sea as a cinematic setting, and with adept use of cross cutting, pumping music, and subtle sound design, we get a heavy sense of separation and isolation .
Terry Haynes pens a classic round the campfire story, with a healthy dose of eroticism, of a Navy captain and his wife (Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman when they were still Australian) encountering a mysterious stranger in the open ocean (Billy Zane), apparently the sole survivor from a sinking ship, but all is not as it seems.
Noyce creates immediate tension in the opening titles with moody music and the sound of rattling and squeaking chains that could be from a horror movie. There’s an unexplained encounter with cops. There’s a bit of noir, but it’s mostly a dark Seven like thriller, it seems, and it feels like something supernatural could be around the corner.
You see Billy Zane’s name in the credits and you know he’s going to be the villain, so I’m not marking that as a spoiler. He does a decent enough job as the drifts in the dingy. and there’s more than a bit of Jack Nicholson in The Shining in his wincing and pleading.
He’s also hot, which is exploited kind of beautifully in the time he has with young Kidman on the yacht together. She’s grieving, depressed, pale, and he’s bronzed and leaking testosterone.
Sam Neill by comparison is a bit cold, but he’s more of this dependable rock for Kidman and fits in as this symbol of competence and reliability in these high stakes situations at sea.
This is for what would have been a boring Wednesday night otherwise.
Taught waterbound concept thriller from Philip Noyce before Jack Ryan, The Bone Collector and Salt. I love the terrifying mystery of the sea as a cinematic setting, and with adept use of cross cutting, pumping music, and subtle sound design, we get a heavy sense of separation and isolation .
Terry Haynes pens a classic round the campfire story, with a healthy dose of eroticism, of a Navy captain and his wife (Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman when they were still Australian) encountering a mysterious stranger in the open ocean (Billy Zane), apparently the sole survivor from a sinking ship, but all is not as it seems.
Noyce creates immediate tension in the opening titles with moody music and the sound of rattling and squeaking chains that could be from a horror movie. There’s an unexplained encounter with cops. There’s a bit of noir, but it’s mostly a dark Seven like thriller, it seems, and it feels like something supernatural could be around the corner.
You see Billy Zane’s name in the credits and you know he’s going to be the villain, so I’m not marking that as a spoiler. He does a decent enough job as the drifts in the dingy. and there’s more than a bit of Jack Nicholson in The Shining in his wincing and pleading.
He’s also hot, which is exploited kind of beautifully in the time he has with young Kidman on the yacht together. She’s grieving, depressed, pale, and he’s bronzed and leaking testosterone.
Sam Neill by comparison is a bit cold, but he’s more of this dependable rock for Kidman and fits in as this symbol of competence and reliability in these high stakes situations at sea.
This is for what would have been a boring Wednesday night otherwise.
