Cargo

Very strong film. I just viewed it at the Sundance Film Fest. Top-notch cast, especially Peter Mullan as the Captain. His voice is like a limestone quarry. Great cinematography (and in the tight quarters of a cargo ship) executed by a crew that comes from documentaries. It is the director's debut fiction feature. Apparently all of his previous work has been in the documentary genre. I say a very good first outing.

Others felt it dragged at times, but I disagree. Very well-paced. It begins as a young man's desperate journey home to Europe and becomes a study of a depraved Captain. The subtext is a comment on government's tendency to outsource dirty work (in this case dealing with stowaways).

A dark and brooding maritime thriller, desperate people on the edge of society and a ship with dark secrets far out at sea. This is how I would sum up this film, it's all you need to know. If you want me to flesh it out some more it's about a young man who hides on a cargo ship to get back home, but he doesn't know he's going to find so much more than a free ride.

You don't often see gems like this. I saw it at the Raindance Film Festival. Having no idea what it was about, I just needed to fill a gap between two films that I did want to see. I was so gripped that I missed the following film. Dare I say this film is faultless? Dark, moody and understated. Acting brilliant, lighting superb etc etc. There are some unusual, non standard plot twists that I like to have in a film. This is not the usual Hollywood script and treatment and so much the better for that. The suspense is held wonderfully well and there is no padding, and no overlong reaction shots dragging on the narrative. And I almost forgot the Music/Sound effect work, I have never, ever heard that done so well, Oscar? On an independent? Not a hope. Beautifully merged to jar your senses, this is great.

I think the reason the Sundance organizers like dark depressing movies is that no one else does. You can make a rotten comedy and it can still do $30 million at the box office. But if you're going to go the slow downer route, you'd better have A Beautiful Mind, or something like it, or you're destined for straight to DVD. And if Sundance is intending to encourage an outlet for all forms of expression, I suppose that's a worthy objective. Just don't plan on enjoying some of the movies.

Cargo is about a ship leaving Africa for Europe and a young man (Daniel Bruhl) who stows away. It is clear from the get-go that this is a mysterious voyage, with exotic birds and rough-looking sailors with secrets and mysterious searches and who knows what's going on. I certainly didn't. It all gets cleared up in the end, which proves to be anticlimactic. In fact, by the end of the movie I hardly cared.

Listening to the Q&A at Sundance I began to understand why. This was a script that took a meandering course to completion, often pausing at many forks in the road to production. Fantasy or reality? Nice guy or not? Happy ending or sad? Somehow, these decisions were made and as a result Cargo feels less like a director's vision than it does a project by committee.

I didn't really know or care about any of the characters. And with all the eeriness of the set-up, I was expecting something more.

I watched this movie without knowing what it is about. It appears to be pretty watchable though I didn't find the main character of the movie much. He came across as a dubious character who has no respect for the country he is visiting, he steals and he lies. Then he gets himself in trouble, doesn't have enough money to make his way home and stowaway in a cargo ship. So, the story begins. For about an hour, I was wondering whether this is a horror movie or a ghost movie or maybe about bad human beings. Won't give a spoiler here but just a warning that I found it pretty slow and frustrating in the development of the plot and couldn't help fast forwarding. Overall, it's entertaining and watchable enough through not entirely rewarding.