There
is something about stories set in a single location, focused on just
one character, that intrigues me. How can the direction, writing and
acting keep the action moving without the ability to use a lot of
normal cinematic tricks? The suspense drama Cargo,
about a man who wakes up in a cargo container with a cellphone and
only 24 hours to come up with $10 million or he and his wife will be
killed, is unable to come up with a solution to that conundrum.
The
setup, introduced in the opening minutes, is simple. There are then
three questions that need to be dealt with to make things compelling.
Who is this man? Why should we care about him? How will he attempt to
get out of this seemingly impossible situation? The first is answered
well enough. Anthony Peterson is a businessman of some kind who is
possibly being punished for shady dealings. Okay, fine. But the next
question is one of the movie’s big problems.
I
did not like the protagonist. That is not, strictly speaking, a bad
thing. Part of the journey for this type of story is in making an
unlikable person likable, or at least understandable. Cargo
fails to accomplish either of those things. He starts off angry, mean
and selfish and never really changes. When his moment of
vulnerability does come, it is wholly unbelievable. He is not
sympathetic. I did not care if he survived. Since he is the only
character viewers actually get to know, that is a pretty huge
roadblock to overcome.
In
order to get past it, the screenplay would have to hook its audience
based on story alone. The twists and turns had to be extra thrilling.
Without giving anything away, I will just say they are not. The
premise is not built on in a way that is surprising or entertaining.
Also, the dialogue is obvious and dull, which certainly does not help
matters. There is very little personality here, so Anthony’s phone
conversations become repetitive before long.
That
is unfortunate because director James Dylan (who also wrote/produced)
has a couple of mildly successful strategies for preventing “one
character, one location” from stagnating. The first is that the
cargo container is large enough for both the camera and the actor to
easily move around. The second is the clear use of sound so it feels
like Anthony is physically experiencing the events taking place on
the other end of the phone.
Both
of these approaches simulate action decently. However, despite the
movement, I never got a sense of the container as a tangible place.
It exists around Anthony, but he does not interact with it. It is a
set and nothing more. As far as the sound goes, it is useful
initially before it becomes a crutch. Hearing someone turning on a
car or walking gives the illusion of activity. But that is all it is.
It is like listening to a radio play. In this case, the audience
watches Anthony helplessly listen to exciting things happening. This
turns him into an oddly passive character, squandering any cleverness
Dylan could inject into his filmmaking.
Every
movie starts with one idea. Good movies can expand that idea in
different directions. Cargo
never does. It is a promising concept that could have been effective
in a short film. Even with its relatively brief 79 minute run time,
Cargo
runs out of interesting things to do with it very quickly.
-Ben Pivoz