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Friday, February 4, 2011
MOVIE REVIEW
Sanctum
Survival Of The Witless
Rhys Wakefield as Josh and Richard Roxburgh as Frank in "Sanctum".
Universal
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday,
February 4, 2011
"Sanctum", James Cameron's executive-produced birth child, is a soul-sucking experience that places
its characters in peril and has them drop dead at designated time intervals.
It's a near-two-hour underwater adventure that is poorly acted and awkwardly
staged, both character and storywise. Needlessly drowned in 3D, the film
has a nagging music score that plays loudly over dialogue and at almost every
other
moment.
The film, which opened nationwide today in the U.S. and in Canada, is a textbook
example of how not
to make an action film about people in danger. "Sanctum" is a pristine
reenactment of the kind of bloopers that appear at the end of a comedy.
Here, the bloopers are horrendous and unfunny. The film parodies, rather
than credibly portrays disaster, and in doing so, "Sanctum" itself becomes a
disaster.
Set and shot in Queensland, Australia, "Sanctum" features six people diving deep to the surface of
the ocean, exploring and navigating in between the Gold Coast's Esa-ala Caves' rock faces,
in spaces even tighter than the rock faces in
"127 Hours". Alister Grierson's film is more pedestrian than
Danny Boyle's
true story. After an event 30 minutes in, a pall is
cast over the film, which goes through bizarre motions. From the start I
never took "Sanctum" seriously and was quickly numbed to its mercurial ways and
inexplicable turns.
A father, Frank (Richard Roxburgh) and son, Josh, (Rhys Wakefield) try to
reconnect in a watery grave, but the emotional currents of their relationship
are swept up by the folly of the characters involved and how they are positioned
by the writers John Garvin and Andrew Wight. For example: Would you not do
a serious check of meteorology forecasts? If you are a veteran diver
wouldn't you do more to protect your team? Does one not appreciate the
risks and dangers of the terrain explored? Frank has spent months
exploring the Esa-ala Caves but his vast experience there doesn't help when the
going gets rough?
A scene from "Sanctum".
Universal
The film's script makes Frank an equivocal presence. The story tries to
lionize and indict him at the same time. He's like a weathervane.
Wishy-washy...and watery. And when you have a financier (Ioan Gruffudd)
along for this trip through the deep blue sea, you know what will happen.
(I think of the lawyer character in "Jurassic Park", sitting on the toilet seat.
He doesn't stand a chance.)
Mr. Grierson's "Sanctum" doesn't focus on much of anything except to pummel its
audience into submission to "feel" it. (I felt as if I'd been smacked
around by a director wielding a raw, three-week-old fish, force-feeding it to
me.) The film's dialogue is heartbreakingly bad. Making movies is
difficult. Making bad movies unintentionally is a monumental challenge.
"Sanctum" may have meant well, but its potential is never fulfilled.
"Sanctum" has the feel of Mr. Cameron's "The Abyss" but not
its smarts. The 1989 film explored its terrain with confidence and
possessed a sense of story, even though it was littered with clichés.
"Sanctum" simply isn't very intelligent as a film. It's a joyless
experience. It has contempt for its characters. The sentiment it
flirts with rings as hollow as a doughnut hole. The ridiculous dialogue is
more an invitation to flee the theater instead of laugh at it. It's
that poor, and sadly, the worst dialogue comes when scenes are supposedly
serious. When disaster strikes, Frank casually dispenses weak-kneed
epitaphs. "Goodbye and thanks for drowning in the pleasure of my company,"
is the essence of Frank's benign contempt for some of his unlucky cohorts.
From a technical standpoint, Mr. Cameron's underwater camera technology in
"Avatar" is employed in
"Sanctum", but apart from two shots in the film it generally isn't used in a way
that distinguishes or accentuates its strengths. And why use the expensive
technology if one cannot take the time to better research the integrity of the
main character, specifically his knowledge of the surroundings he's supposedly
an expert on?
"Sanctum", which some would be tempted to re-title "Rectum", just never gets off
on the right foot. The film's own tagline speaks volumes: "the only way
out is down."
With: Alice Parkinson, Dan Wyllie, Christopher Baker, Nicole Downs, Allison
Cratchley, Cramer Cain, Andrew Hansen, John Garvin, Nea Diap.
"Sanctum" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America
for language, some violence and disturbing images. The film's running time is one hour and
49 minutes. The film is also playing in IMAX 3D.
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