Harrowing drama of modern-day piracy as a sort of illicit corporate takeover; riveting and exhausting.
I’m “biast” (pro): greatly enjoyed writer-director Tobias Lindholm’s The Hunt
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
It plays more like a documentary, this fictional drama of modern-day piracy as a sort of illicit corporate takeover, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t both riveting and exhausting. A Danish cargo ship is captured by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, and you won’t believe how long the telephone negotiations to pay off the pirates and rescue the crew take — every delay is terrifying. Long quiet moments of uncertainty are punctuated by sudden sheer terror, a stark contrast matched by that between the sleek Copenhagen conference room and the squalid deteriorating conditions on the ship, the only locations here. Totally harrowing.
I’d be interested to put this up against Captain Phillips, which presumably has a much bigger budget, and see how they compare…