Review #1,145: 'Deepwater Horizon' (2016)

Reuniting with his Lone Survivor (2013) leading man Mark Wahlberg and telling another true-life tale of down-to-earth, blue-collar guys caught up in a horrendous, avoidable situation, Peter Berg tackles the events leading up to and during the explosion of the titular Deepwater Horizon Mobile Drilling Unit and the subsequent offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Berg opts to tell the story in the mould of a classic disaster movie, introducing the various characters that are inevitably destined to be caught up in the chaos, before delivering the movie's big set-piece; a massive, devastating explosion of fire and oil, dramatically and realistically brought to life by the 85%-to-scale set. While it makes for an entertaining and exciting picture (hardly necessities for a true-life tragedy), it misses the opportunity to explore the bigger picture.

Returning to Deepwater Horizon after shore leave, engineer Mike Williams (Wahlberg) arrives at the floating rig to find that not all the workers are happy or comfortable with the actions of the company men. Mike and respected supervisor Mr. Jimmy (Kurt Russell) are shocked to learn that the men responsible for conducting a pressure test have been sent home early under the orders of BP man Vidrine (John Malkovich), without carrying out the routine safety inspections. A lot of the dialogue is naturalistic but muffled, meaning that the necessary exposition required to understand the workings of the rig and the reasons for the pending disaster can confuse. One of the opening scenes sees Mike explain his job to his young daughter who is preparing for a class talk. She seemed to get it but I didn't, but it's clear enough that something isn't quite right.

Berg's decision to keep the CGI trickery to an absolute minimum certainly pays off, and allows cinematographer Enrique Chediak to capture the sheer scale of the event to full effect. While there are some invisible special effects at work, the whole ordeal feels entirely real, bolstered by some terrifying, Oscar-nominated sound editing. Yet in aiming to deliver an action movie so focused on the immediacy of the event and the swift actions of those on board, it loses sight of the bigger picture at play. Namely, the unforgivable misconduct and irresponsibility of BP, who endangered the life of every man and woman on board in fear of being behind schedule, and the resulting oil spill which devastated wildlife and could be seen from space. For me at least, that sounds like a more interesting and engrossing movie. Still, Berg's picture is well made, handsomely performed, and, most importantly, doesn't feel superficial.


Directed by: Peter Berg
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Gina Rodriguez, John Malkovich, Dylan O'Brien, Kate Hudson
Country: Hong Kong/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie