I don’t often investigate the intentions of film directors when writing a review. In my opinion, everything you need to know should be up on screen. Sometimes though, my interest is piqued and I decide to have a little snoop at the director’s statements. The Deep made me do just that. It’s a strange little film that, though it has at its core a display of great human strength, actually has very little to offer in terms of a story.
The year is 1984 and we join the crew of a trawler on the eve of a fishing trip as they drink, dance and say farewell to their families. The next day, they are several miles out to sea when the nets become snagged on rock and the ship capsizes. The only survivor is Gulli (Olafur Darri Olafsson), a quiet bear of a man, who finds himself stranded in the middle of freezing water off the Icelandic coast. Over the course of six hours, Gulli swims back to land in temperatures that should have killed him. On his return, he is proclaimed a hero but Gulli doesn’t feel comfortable with his newly found fame.
So back to that director’s statement from Baltasar Kormakur (of Jar City and most recently the Mark Wahlberg vehicle Contraband). Apparently, having come across the true story of Gulli, he was struck by how a man who was being hailed as a hero and medical miracle, just wanted to be left alone without any adulation or attention. Kormakur saw this as representative of the Icelandic temperament as a whole and specifically the way in which the country has staged a quiet, determined recovery since their economic crash in 2008.
In hindsight, this does make sense but throughout the film I felt very unengaged, struggling to find a point of interest. The opening sequence, in which we meet the men and get an insight into their hard-scrabble but happy lives is the most successful – filmed with an atmospheric murkiness that contrasts with the vibrant merrymaking of the crew. The remainder though, has a lack of dialogue and narrative incident. All in all, both emotionally and physically, The Deep left me feeling cold.