Black Sea is a 2014 thriller about a submarine captain who takes a job with a shadowy backer to search the depths of the Black Sea for a submarine rumored to be loaded with gold.
I recently wrote about a film with Paul Walker playing a guy living the life in the Bahamas, who finds under the waves a sunken treasure, though also a downed plane full of cocaine that causes a rigamaroo of headaches. Mix in some bikini-clad ladies, a few toothy sharks, and a goofy Scott Caan, and well, you know. Whatever. Now I bring you Black Sea, another underwater search for lost gold that skips the girls, sharks (and thankfully, Caans) for a more gritty take on underwater adventure worth strapping on some gear and going for a dive.
Beginning as movies like this do, well in the past, we witness a World War II German U-boat take a depth charge to the hull and head for the seafloor. Fade to black. Skip ahead to modern times and we meet Robinson (Jude Law), sitting across from his boss at a marine salvage company getting some bad news. He’s out of a job, submarine pilots unnecessary in an age of satellites and sonar. Tough luck. Already bitter from his divorce, he’s a tumble-down guy.
Like many hard-working men in the local coastal town on the Black Sea, he’s now scrapping for work, hanging out with his mates in pubs trying to figure out what to do next. He then gets word from a fellow employee who also lost his job, that they’d found the wreck of an old submarine, which they think is the lost German U-boat said to be loaded with Russian gold offered by Stalin before Hitler turned on him. Inside is enough fortune to win back his wife and live out his days in splendor. But can he make it happen?
Mixing three genres, treasure hunting, submarine action, and greedy betrayal, Black Sea navigates its way through familiar waters with ease, loaded with all the usual tropes but packed with meaty performances and even better direction from Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald. There’s plenty of suspense both outside and inside the sub as the game is really about reaching the supposed loot while the crew of thugs (half British and half Russian) begin to squabble over their cut of the expected take.
Enter loose canon Fraser (Ben Mendelsohn), an untrustworthy goon who wants more money and hates the Russians, thinking they don’t deserve a fair share. When he takes action, some men die and the boat becomes crippled on a ridge … right next to the U-boat. Thing is, the boat is divided and the Russians want revenge. Now Robinson has to save the lot of the them and figure a way to save the sub and get the gold. But there’s a few kinks in the plan and keeping his boat stable ain’t so easy.
Law makes an impressive stand as the boat’s captain, filling in the brawny part with a tough as nails presence that makes it real easy to follow him into the dark. It’s a tricky role that could have tipped into parody fast but he holds it together very well, giving the always believable adventure terrific authenticity. This isn’t about big explosive set pieces, but rather the complex personality conflicts compressed within the small walls of the boat. It might feel a little contrived for the sake of the story, but the cast dive in, committed to their turns with seamy appeal, the flash-fire-like combustibility of it all always one spark away from ignition.
That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of tense-riddled moments, as MacDonald sort of takes hold of the James Cameron approach to underwater action à la The Abyss. It’s haunting and uneasy, the depths full of the unexpected, a few particular scenes paralleling a bit of what we saw in that movie, including a steep ledge into, well … an abyss. You can bet that gaping maw claims its toll. No matter, it’s still pretty cool.
There’s also a nice little twist at the start of the third act that resets the motivations of the dwindling crew (and makes an earlier scene with a ‘guy in charge’ make a whole heckuva lot more sense). It’s smart and well-earned. As is the ending, even if we might see it a few fathoms ahead. Law nestles perfectly into the narrow ends his character seems destined for and makes it highly satisfying. That’s the thing about Black Sea that perhaps is most surprising. You actually get invested in these people and their fates. Go ahead. Fill the tubes and take the dive.