Jude Anthany Joseph's third feature, after Ohm Shanti Oshana and Oru Muthassi Gadha, released on Prime Video at midnight today. This seemingly feel-good film, also seemingly made in limited spaces and with a shoestring budget, tackles a concept and issue never tested before in Malayalam cinema circles. In Sara'S, we follow the life of Sara Vincent (Anna Ben), a young, bubbly, yet unapologetic filmmaker who struggles to make it big in the industry. She continuously assists male directors and is in the scripting works of her dream film. Sara has decided, from her school days, that she would not bear any kids. This is when she meets Jeevan (Sunny Wayne); her relationship with him subsequently brings her ideology and decision into a confrontation with the established norms of society, family and child-rearing. Anna Ben in Sara'S The best aspect in which Sara'S has excelled, without doubt, is its hard-hitting taut script. Debutant Akshay Hareesh deserves praise for managin...
Greyhound, a World War-II thriller, directed by Aaron Schneider and starring Tom Hanks, released on Apple's streaming platform, Apple TV+, after a theatrical release became difficult, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Greyhound is based on the fictional nautical war novel The Good Shepherd, written by C.S Forester, which narrates the treacherous voyage of a naval escort group protecting a merchant ship convoy carrying supplies to England. Here is our review on the film.
Months after the U.S made it's entry into the Second World War, first-time US Navy Commander Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks), who frequently utters Bible verses and fears his inexperience, is tasked with commanding a Fletcher-class destroyer, codenamed Greyhound, which escorts a merchant ship convoy carrying supplies from the U.S to England. As they enter the 'Black Pit' in the Atlantic Sea, an undefended area beyond the range of antisubmarine aircrafts, Greyhound and it's accompanying escort group face the constant threat of annihilation from the notorious German submarines, the U2 boats. It is up to Commander Krause to display resilience and defend the convoy ships from German adversaries.
Luckily, Greyhound is a short film, spanning only 90 minutes. On watching the film, I couldn't help but appreciate how the makers were able to pack this thrilling watch into a short runtime, something most makers would hesitate to do. Never does one feel tired, as in it's entirety, Greyhound crams every noteworthy trope of the thriller genre into it's seemingly tight script. Hanks, who also wrote the screenplay, deserves some applause for writing a film that never wants to tire it's viewers.
Almost ninety percent of the dialogues are conversations in the form of naval commands, messages, and alarms. In the rest ten percent, Hanks writes in Bible quotes, which his character utters in crucial junctures in the film. Hanks, in this case, adheres to his source material, The Good Shepherd, where Forester conceived his protagonist as a devout. In it's ninety minutes, there is very less space for dialogues and conversations of a more personal nature; such an exchange is only seen in a flashback sequence between Hanks' character and Krause's love interest, portrayed by Elisabeth Shue. Although the flashback intends to depict a personal and deeper side of Hank's character, that sequence, however, turns out to be the most forgetful.
In it's pursuit to jam pack the valuable ninety minutes with its fortunately well-executed thrills, Greyhound ends up forgetting much of it's characters; let it be Shue's love interest character, the other troops aboard the Greyhound, or even Hanks' character. It is said that the source material often gave emphasis to Krause's personal and emotional travails- his relative inexperience commanding a warship, his doubts on whether he is suited to command the ship, his relationship issues etc. In Greyhound, none of these receive considerable attention, and thus, the film turns out to lack a certain gravitas, even as it heavily capitalizes on it's visual effects-assisted thrills. The only personal chemistry I could savor was the professional yet informal rapport between Krause and Cleveland, the senior messmate aboard Greyhound, who constantly cooks for his skipper, who, in turn, refuses to eat it.
Greyhound may end up having a predictable story line with oft-repeated genre tropes, but it succeeds in captivating it's viewers with its well-executed set pieces. Greyhound is a forgetful yet watchable film, which attempts to excel in its CGI-enabled extravaganza. What might disappoint many is that it fails to invest in it's characters, even the lead. Watch it for it's tense and captivating thrills, not it's uninteresting plot.
Reviewer© rating: 3 stars
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for war-related action/violence and brief strong language)
Run time: 91 minutes
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