Dead Calm (B or 3/4 stars)
Based on a suspense novel, Australian director Phillip Noyce's 1989 thriller, 'Dead Calm' is a nifty little mainstream entertainment starring Sam Neill, Billy Zane, & then-newcomer-to-worldwide cinema, Nicole Kidman. No convoluted plot or brainy twists ... just good, solid chills & thrills. Experienced boatsman, John Ingram (Neill), his young wife, Rae (Kidman), & their dog are out on the relatively calm waters of the Pacific. Off Australia's coast on their yacht, The Saracen, Rae is recovering from a car accident in which their son was killed and, it is their great hope that this sea-bound holiday will help them cope. Unable to relax due to her bout of nightmares about the accident, Rae tries - with help from comforting John - to get her bearings.
But their seclusion from the world is disrupted by a handsome young man desperately racing towards them in a lifeboat; requesting aid. It appears as if this man, Hughie (Zane), is the sole survivor from a half-sunk schooner, The Orpheus. Curious, John goes to inspect the schooner, leaving Rae with the castaway; whom he locks in a room down below. As it turns out, Hughie is a sadistic killer and, after knocking out Rae ... steers the yacht away. John watches this disturbing development while aboard the sinking Orpheus and, at this time, realizes that Hughie is a psychopathic murderer. As he sizes-up the mayhem aboard that vessel, he knows that it's a race against time to bail out all the water of the ship & somehow save his wife. Drama ensues.
This movie is pure tension. Sam Neill is very good as the loving, but fraught John. Billy Zane imbues a dangerous, manic appeal; someone who is sexily seductive, yet scary, & likeable, yet terrifying. 8 years later, we'd see his sexily seductive, yet terrifying feat again in Titanic. And Nicole Kidman runs the gamut of distress, fear AND strength in a very realistic way. The happenstance in the story is pretty simplistic; offering little more than scares. But maybe that's all that was needed. Dean Semler's cinematography keeps you on edge. The tension aboard the vessels comes & goes in undulating waves. And the film just works; even with a, shall we say, hair-raising climax that stretches believability. Phillip Noyce directs this taut, edge-of-your-seat thriller with great skill and, watching Kidman's Rae turn from shattered wife into resourceful battler against a manic enemy is something to behold.
But their seclusion from the world is disrupted by a handsome young man desperately racing towards them in a lifeboat; requesting aid. It appears as if this man, Hughie (Zane), is the sole survivor from a half-sunk schooner, The Orpheus. Curious, John goes to inspect the schooner, leaving Rae with the castaway; whom he locks in a room down below. As it turns out, Hughie is a sadistic killer and, after knocking out Rae ... steers the yacht away. John watches this disturbing development while aboard the sinking Orpheus and, at this time, realizes that Hughie is a psychopathic murderer. As he sizes-up the mayhem aboard that vessel, he knows that it's a race against time to bail out all the water of the ship & somehow save his wife. Drama ensues.
This movie is pure tension. Sam Neill is very good as the loving, but fraught John. Billy Zane imbues a dangerous, manic appeal; someone who is sexily seductive, yet scary, & likeable, yet terrifying. 8 years later, we'd see his sexily seductive, yet terrifying feat again in Titanic. And Nicole Kidman runs the gamut of distress, fear AND strength in a very realistic way. The happenstance in the story is pretty simplistic; offering little more than scares. But maybe that's all that was needed. Dean Semler's cinematography keeps you on edge. The tension aboard the vessels comes & goes in undulating waves. And the film just works; even with a, shall we say, hair-raising climax that stretches believability. Phillip Noyce directs this taut, edge-of-your-seat thriller with great skill and, watching Kidman's Rae turn from shattered wife into resourceful battler against a manic enemy is something to behold.