hyped garbage

Expected more

The first must-see film of the year.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

One of those films that has a lot of impressive things and other things that could have been done better. One of the things that Cargo has in its favour is that it looks great, the scenery is beautiful, the ship is like a character of its own, the lighting has a haunting effect and the photography and editing have a tautness and eeriness about them. The music also has an eerie quality while not making things too obvious, the first half of the story at least is very engaging and suspenseful as well as tightly paced, the dialogue is smart and intense at this point too and Peter Mullen and Daniel Bruhl are very well-cast, very brooding. In fact the cast is solid with nobody really disgracing themselves. The second half is not quite so good, it has its intense, suspenseful moments and the film is still well made and acted sure. But it also does come rather confused and even for a thriller things felt under-explained, granted thrillers can leave things open for interpretations and leave a lot of questions but for some reason Cargo didn't feel very complete at the end of the day. The dialogue becomes stilted by this point, the pacing loses its tightness and becomes plodding and Cargo does end on a banal note. The characters are relatively interesting in the first half and mostly for the second half but the viewer's frustration at Chris' actions increase more and more until reaching boiling point towards the end. Overall, a well-made film with some impressive things but a lot of the second half leaves one short-changed. Not plain-sailing but not a ship-wreck. 5/10 Bethany Cox

It's not a bad film. What I liked most about it is that I was expecting a kind of Alien on the sea funfair, but then it turned out to be quite interesting.The main plot is about how the crew of a cargo freighter decides to throw overboard every single illegal immigrant they find because of the high fines they would be charged otherwise. This may be based on reality, because some years ago, there were political talks in Spain concerning lorry drivers travelling from countries like Morocco to Europe: the drivers would be fined heavily if any immigrant would try to pass through the border hidden in their vehicles. The idea was scrapped for good (thank god), but this film just explores that concept. What would happen if somebody simply decided that there is no way they were going to pay such a fine?

The theme seems somewhat of interest, and it could have held attention if it were not for Daniel Brühl's character, "Chris", who is annoying to an extreme. For some reason, that the viewer is never able to understand, the incredibly innocuous Chris is able to screw up everything he touches from scene one until the grand finale. Anyone with even half a brain, finding himself in such a perilous state, would lay the lowest profile possible in an attempt to merely survive - which is the exact opposite route taken by Brühl's highly infantile and ridiculous character. After 30 minutes into the flick, you come to detest the guy's guts, wishing that the hostile crew would just fling the half-wit overboard and get it over with.Do yourself a favour - skip this flop.

Very strong film. I just viewed it at the Sundance Film Fest. Top-notch cast, especially Peter Mullan as the Captain. His voice is like a limestone quarry. Great cinematography (and in the tight quarters of a cargo ship) executed by a crew that comes from documentaries. It is the director's debut fiction feature. Apparently all of his previous work has been in the documentary genre. I say a very good first outing.Others felt it dragged at times, but I disagree. Very well-paced. It begins as a young man's desperate journey home to Europe and becomes a study of a depraved Captain. The subtext is a comment on government's tendency to outsource dirty work (in this case dealing with stowaways).