Cargo
2006 Sundance Film Festival
★ ★
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 France, 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 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 France, 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.
posted by Bill at 1:18 PM
rss feeds
6 Comments:
Hi, I'm just curious, what happened in the end? Is it a happy ending for the stowaway?
Thanks!
Hi, can I ask for a spoiler?
Did the stowaway died in the end or the character of Peter Mullan died??? Please how did they happened?
If you can't post it here, can you kindly email the ending at [email protected]. Thanks, I really want to know cause I missed the ending...
SPOILER COMING!!!!
Hey Rover, happy to oblige. What’s up, did you have to leave early?
Yes, they toss Chris over the edge and presumably he dies. However, the female stowaway (who also killed what, three people?) made it over the edge in a rowboat and there was a shot of her rowing with land in the background, so I think the director wants you to assume that she made it.
Yup I have to leave early on that time, I didn't even watch half of it...
You mean Chris died? Is that the same scene in the trailer where Chris is not wearing upper body shirt and the crew of the ship tries to toss him outside? Or is that another scene?
Thanks! Hope you answer my inquiry soon!
Yup I have to leave early on that time, I didn't even watch half of it...
You mean Chris died? Is that the same scene in the trailer where Chris is not wearing any shirt and the crew of the ship tries to toss him outside? Or is that another scene?
Thanks! Hope you answer my inquiry soon!
Unfortunately, I never saw a trailer. And after 25 movies, I don't recall whether Chris had his shirt on or not. I'm sure he was wearing pants, though. I would have definitely remembered that!
Post a Comment
<< Home