Cargo (2005)

[center]CARGO "What's in the hold?" [left]Cargo it's quite difficult to define, it's not easy to establish a genre for it. But we'll attach it to the thriller, although it could seem a horror movie. It follows the story of a young german man (Daniel Brühl, seen in Good Bye, Lenin!) that loses his passport when staying in a non-named African country, so he decides to infiltrate into any ship that's going to Europe. But in the ship he has chosen, the "Gull", he's discovered and obligated to work for them meanwhile they go to Europe. But that's not a normal ship, and there happen strange things. And that's what we know with 20 minutes of the film, and the next part of the film is a mixture of genres without conclusions. The spectator receives continuously enough information to be cautioned about what's happening on board, but at the end of the film, nothing is clear. The script says so many possibilities and suggestions to the spectator's mind that none of them seems possible. The realistic images don't fit enough with the thriller or horror film that it's supposed to be. So a few of the film viewers will try to think about which is the truth that lies behind the dissapearings in the "Gull", or what is the same: What's in the hold? (the eternal question in Cargo). The last part of the film doesn't have enough interest or power to create a suspensful climax. It's what usually happens when reality is mixed with surreality, it doesn't always have to work perfectly. Moreover, the artistic direction works good when shows the hold, but it fails when shooting the external sequences. Too much light against too dark images. This is confusing and has non-sense, so the film looses identity. But the best part of the film are the performances, Daniel Brühl, Luis Tosar and Peter Mullan create what the direction is unable to create: interesting moments. They fit very well in this bizarre and original script, written by Paul Laverty, but they can't save this nearly-sinking ship called Cargo. [/left] The african harbour is, in reality, Barcelona's harbour. There's something that any Barcelona citizen can distinguish: the Mafre Tower can be seen at the beggining of the film. [/center]