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Ghost Ship
By Dave DePino
More and more lately I've been thinking that there should be an Oscar made available for those folks who put together tantalizing trailers which make the ticket-buying public (and critics) swarm to theaters expecting to see quality stuff, but instead get served up a mediocre or even stinker of a movie. I know no one sets out to produce bad films, but there sure are enough made in that genre - the dud - to fill many a storage vault. Who's in charge of the asylum? Nevertheless, those diligent little whiz kids in the chopping room can make a "B-" movie look like Citizen Kane.
That brings us to director Steve Beck's Ghost Ship, a horror-suspense trifle that takes a fairly silly screenplay (Mark Hanlon and John Pogue) of a scattered, rather flimsy premise, stretched into a full length story (story credited to Hanlon), and wraps it nicely in expensive and attractive wrapping paper (impressive production design by Graham "Grace" Walker with cinematographer Gale Tattersall behind the lens). This very long 90-minute offering is in danger of sinking long before the ship ever will. And that's really too bad, because there is some undiscovered, actual substance to the tale. The thin base story is peppered with sub-stories, not quite sub-plots, but little tangents rich with possibilities. Beck tries to mine them, but either his vision or the lacking depth to the script and character profiles defeats the effort. To fill in the gaps, he uses the new tool-of-choice to cover up flaws --effects. The visuals are interesting, but can't carry this film.
The story is about a crew of tugboat salvagers with a tough, ol' capt'n in charge, Murphy (Gabriel Byrne). His right hand person and suggested playmate Epps (Juianna Margulies), is just as tough and a bit of a daredevil when it comes to getting a job done. The rest of the mates are made up of guys who sit around saying goofy stuff like, "The sea gives you an opportunity; you take it." Everyone goes by last names: the first mate, Greer (Isaiah Washington); and techies Dodge, Munder, and Santos (Ron Eldard, Karl Urban and Alex Dimitriades, respectively). They live by the reinvented musketeer's credo, "all for one and all for gold." Enter a young flyboy, Jack (Desmond Harrington), who spotted a large vessel floating around in the Bering Sea. This sounds like an opportunity if there ever was one, so the tug-team takes Jack up on his offer to check it out - with Jack getting a cut and tagging along, of course.
Well, the ship turns out to be the Italian luxury liner the Antonia Graza that disappeared at sea forty years earlier with a gazillion people on it. Loaded with gold bricks, this treasure leads the crew to conflicts of power and greed. Whispers of some high-seas skullduggery decades ago and last, but not least, a good helping of otherworldliness lead to interesting moments. Snippets of intrigue sneak in with lit cigarettes in ashtrays, fairly new dead bodies here and there and, in particular, short scenes involving a sultry, chanteuse in a red gown and others with a little girl. The opening scene, shown as a flash back, is about one of the most gruesome, bloody uses of film seen in awhile which serves aptly as kind of a guilty pleasure for closeted blood 'n' guts junkies. If you turned away from this segment the first time around, hold on, it is rehashed in another flashback sequence. The climax is hard to swallow, but the tag makes it somewhat worthwhile. Let's hope they aren't opening the door for a sequel.
Performances are varied from Acting 101 to embarrassed, but competent. Bryne is as good as the script allows. He manages to rise a bit above the material. Margulies rises just enough to break even, as does Harrington, but most of the rest of the cast seems to be adrift at sea with no lifesaver in sight. The sets aboard ship are eerie enough, but the ship itself should take on a menacing quality like haunted houses do in horror films. Here, the vessel seems like just so much welded, deserted, rusting metal, in huge proportions. And, if you think you are going to be scared, think again. The only things that make you jump are cheap boo-tricks, like dead people hanging in closets and well telegraphed, spooky gotchas. No dramatically-cerebral trauma here. This is video rental material at best.
While you're waiting for Ghost Ship" to come out in video, why not really scare the daylights out of yourself and rent the terrific, 1963 (not the new one), B&W version of The Haunting, adapted from Shirley Jackson's novel, The Haunting of Hill House. Audiences and critics alike have relished this classic, making it a cult favorite. This is a bloodless horror movie where a house takes on a life of its own. It brings together for a weekend a parapsychologist, a skeptic, and two mediums. Robert Wise directed this chiller for MGM which stars a stellar cast including Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, and Richard Johnson.
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