Kursk (2018)

Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg | 118 minutes | action, drama | Actors: Matthias Schoenaerts, Léa Seydoux, Peter Simonischek, August Diehl, Max von Sydow, Colin Firth, Bjarne Henriksen, Magnus Millang, Artemiy Spiridonov, Joel Basman, Pit Bukowski, Matthias Schweighöfer, Tom Hudson, Chris Pascal, Kristof Coenen, Pernilla Coenen

Russian couleur locale in the opening part of ‘Kursk’. A navy captain (Matthias Schoenaerts) speaks Russian to his pregnant wife (Léa Seydoux). Well done and attractive. Then we switch to a navy wedding and the official language is English, and it will remain that way. A lot less. With an international cast & crew consisting mainly of non-English speakers (including director Vinterberg), creating the right atmosphere is already complicated, even with top actors such as Schoenaerts and Seydoux. But we’re not going to whine, the action is yet to come.

Still, you would wish that more careful choices were made in such drama. Hollywood’s pushing is allowed, no European fiddling please. Things don’t run smoothly in your undersigned viewer country, although we are already in the exploding Kursk within half an hour. The nuclear submarine sinks, and Schoenaerts is in charge. And speaks English to the Russian crew, sloppy English. And does Vinterberg think he is making a Holocaust film with his slow horror?

Maybe it’s not a suitable story either. The actual outcome is known: all those on board the Kursk have died. You can guess what happened inside, but no one can tell. This calls for a documentary reconstruction or a highly fictional reworking. Vinterberg uses sound and soundtrack to get things going, and a visual metaphor here and there, but the film needs a big spark that hasn’t been found. A spark as with ‘Gravity’ the spacewalk, and with ‘Titanic’ the closing hour.

That was nice, also because the protagonists believed in the story and the execution. Half-heartedness clings to the protagonists of ‘Kursk’; there’s a strange atmosphere to the execution, which doesn’t really fit an action movie, nor human drama. Vinterberg creates a dark, muffled world, while we believe this film requires greater gestures. ‘Kursk’ is solid and technically perfect, but you can’t buy a good end result with a true story. Perhaps with a director who is in place.