There’s a forgotten Nazi U-boat loaded with gold lying at the bottom of the Black Sea. There’s a crew of British and Russian character actors (and Scoot McNairy) out to get it. There’s a creaky old submarine. Element B loads into Element C to go after Element A. This is what you may recognize as a winning premise. When Nazi gold and submarines are in play, all you really have to do is not get in the way of the inherent dopeness to make a fun movie. And all the pieces fall terrifically into place for Black Sea, a cracking adventure perfect for jolting you out of the January doldrums.
Jude Law in this film can be seen as its synecdoche: he’s broad, predictable, and filled with too much testosterone, and utterly committed to making it work. He plays Robinson, the captain of this ragtag bunch of ‘ard lads who descends further into obsession as their voyage goes on — and gets progressively more dangerous. A man who’s lost all familial ties in the service of a company that cut him loose without a second thought, Robinson fixates on the idea of winning the treasure as a means to fling middle fingers into said company’s face forever. It’s why all these men push forward even when they really, really should turn back: the allure of cutting loose all bounds of a working-class life.
Black Sea is as claustrophobic as its submarine setting promises. Always, the camera is tight in. Its maneuverability feels as restricted as that of the characters. Top-notch sound work makes every harsh word or ding of metal reverberate ominously throughout. From the moment the top hatch seals, the story squeezes in the pressure on the crew. They’re immediately divided by the language barrier between the British and the Russians, and hostilities only get worse from there.
Some incidents that spring up are unnecessarily contrived. It’s in a lot of the character incidentals that the script falters the most, but the actors are usually able to cover those shortfalls. Each cast member is assigned roughly one major character trait, and if you’re familiar with their filmography, then you can guess what those traits are. Ben Mendelsohn is hot-blooded and dangerous. Michael Smiley is level-headed and dependable. Grigoriy Dobrygin, excellent in last year’s A Most Wanted Man, is good-hearted and has beautiful eyes. There’s also a guy whose hearing is so good that he can act as human radar. So cool.
Really, though, everything else about Black Sea is in service to several big suspense setpieces, and here, the film cuts loose, concocting marvelous scenarios for enormous stress. A fire breaks out in the engine room. Three divers have to escort a pallet loaded with gold across a narrow sea ridge. The crew must jerry-rig a setup so that the sub can navigate a ravine without radar. And each time, men die and things break, making the next encounter more risky than the previous one.
Ideally, there’d be at least one movie per year about daring treasure hunts. If you’re also a fan of bearded men coated with grime arguing in close quarters before having to pull together to avoid dying, then Black Sea delivers all that you could hope for.
