'Deepwater' an engaging if shallow disaster film thriller
"Deepwater Horizon" doesn't delve very deeply into the explosion of a floating BP oil rig that killed 11 workers and spilled 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, creating the greatest oil disaster in history.
Director Peter Berg seems content to let "Deepwater Horizon" be a straightforward, formula disaster thriller populated by stock characters uttering functional dialogue, and featuring numerous explosions and many acts of derring-do before the obligatory where-are-they-now? update on the survivors during the closing credits.
It takes a while for the true star of "Deepwater Horizon" - the disaster - to make its appearance. Until then, the screenplay (based on a New York Times article) uses foreshadowing devices to prepare us for its inevitable arrival.
Chief electronics technician Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) uses a Coke can to illustrate to his little daughter how oil gets extracted from the sea.
Oh, oh! The carbonated can erupts. That can't be good.
Crusty crew boss Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) tells a man that his magenta necktie is the same color as the most severe warning level aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
Then come those ominous burbling air pockets on the ocean floor around the drill site, becoming louder, bigger, more menacing.
If only BP had paid more attention to safety instead of the bottom line.
But that's what slithery BP exec Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich, here a hybrid of Colonel Sanders and Tennessee Williams' Big Daddy) tows when he insists on business as usual despite abnormalities in the rig's routine safety tests.
Once the pressure valves blow and fire breaks out, "Deepwater Horizon" explodes into a full-blown "Towering Inferno" on the ocean with lethal projectiles, mushrooming flames, flying bodies and lots of technical jargon being delivered like gunfire exchanges.
Berg, who directed Wahlberg in "Sole Survivor," succeeds in re-creating the confusion, panic and pandemonium undoubtedly experienced by the crew. But it comes at a high cost.
In many scenes, we don't know where the characters are. Then, we often can't tell who the characters are. Or what exactly happens to them.
Berg pushes the action to breakneck speed to cover for a lot of dramatic deficits and a more detailed exploration of why the Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred, not just physically how it happened.
Clint Eastwood's fact-based disaster film "Sully" cleverly mixed the chronology of events to create a fresh take on a genre that defined the 1970s.
Admittedly, "Sully" contained an obvious main character whereas "Deepwater" arbitrarily selects Wahlberg's Mike Williams to be a token lead, the only character to warrant a standard back story with a concerned wife (Kate Hudson) and a cute daughter.
Russell's hard-bitten, voice of conscience Jimmy Harrell could have been a much more powerful lead, especially going head-to-head with Malkovich's vaguely Machiavellian corporate snake.
Perhaps the muscular Wahlberg is easier on the eyes, especially as he rescues rig employee Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez), who freaks out in panic as the resident damsel in distress.
"This here's the well from hell," a rig worker says.
If there is a hell on earth, "Deepwater Horizon" has the footage to prove it.
“Deepwater Horizon”
★ ★ ½
Starring: Kurt Russell, Mark Wahlberg, John Malkovich, Kate Hudson, Gina Rodriguez
Directed by: Peter Berg
Other: A Lionsgate release. Rated PG-13 for language, disaster sequences. 99 minutes