Great Film: Dead Calm
An Entertaining, Solid Little Thriller
A young couple, trying to get over the death of their child, go on a
cruise along the coral reef in their own private yacht. After many days at
sea they come upon a boat with only one survivor. The man comes aboard
their ship and almost immediately begins to act erratic. Tensions slowly
rise until it becomes obvious that this man is a full blown psychotic who
has killed everyone on the first boat and plans to do the same to
them.
In many ways this has a foundation to a perfect thriller. The two main
characters are sensible and intelligent people who just happen to be at the
wrong place at the wrong time. Like with every thriller their are a few
minor loopholes, but overall the situations are done in a believable fashion
with no extreme jumps in logic. The script is tight and the suspense
consistent. The action comes naturally through the scenarios and is not
forced or played out too long. Having it take place at sea gives it a very
distinct flavor. The limitations of the setting actually makes it even more
creative. It also hits on one of the main ingredients of fear which is
isolation.
The only minor liability is the Zane character. At times he seems like
a very believable and even fascinating psychotic. He is definitely no
machine like slasher. There are times when he seems very calm and
complacent. His disturbed traits only surface sporadically thus giving him
a much more multi-faceted presence. Unfortunately he is also very careless
and sometimes even amazingly dumb. This hurts the tension because it seems
to be telegraphing his own demise.
The Neill character makes a good counterpoint. He is savvy and
no-nonsense. He takes action into his own hands and doesn't just fall into
the helpless victim mode of other thrillers. The Kidman character is
another refreshing change of pace. She is not the standard 'screaming lady
in a bikini', but instead shows equal resourcefulness.
The film does resort to the modern day slasher trend of having a
'double' ending. Yet everything is so slickly handled that you can almost
just go with it. For thriller fans this should be a real
treat.
7 out of 10.
Cast
- Hughie Warriner played by Billy Zane
- Rae Ingram played by Nicole Kidman
- John Ingram played by Sam Neill
- Russell Bellows played by Rod Mullinar
- Danny played by Joshua Tilden
- Doctor played by George Shevtsov
- Specialist Doctor played by Michael Long
