The summer’s movies have been hit hard by coronavirus-related closures, with new releases either being postponed or relegated to VOD, but some films seem to have found the perfect release context in the pandemic. Neasa Hardiman’s “Sea Fever,” about an Irish fishing trawler beset by a mysterious infection, is a prime example. If the spooky grandeur of its deep-sea setting is somewhat shortchanged by the home viewing experience, the movie compensates with many topical terrors — such as characters’ arguing about the need to self-quarantine. I shuddered!
Siobhan (Hermione Corfield), a bookish marine biology student, is assigned to conduct a field study on a commercial fishing boat run by a rugged couple, Freya (Connie Nielsen) and Gerard (Dougray Scott), and their small crew. “Sea Fever” sets up these characters with just a few, cursory strokes — Siobhan is cold and clinical to a fault; the boat owners are desperate for cash; the crew is overworked but tight-knit like a family — before introducing its phosphorescent monster: a squid-like creature that attaches itself to the vessel and oozes parasitic larvae.
Things turn progressively bloodier and gooeyer, but Hardiman focuses her lens on the human drama underlying it all: The profiteering that leads the boat into harm’s way in the first place; the secrets and betrayals that emerge among the crew; and the selflessness the infection demands of them. It’s all very resonant stuff, performed by an earnest and committed cast. But “Sea Fever” speeds through these turns of plot as if to check them off a list, with characters dropping dead before they’ve had a chance to earn our sympathy.
Borrowing heavily from movies like “The Thing” and “Alien,” “Sea Fever” doesn’t have much that’s distinct about it, save for a vivid sense of place. Hardiman (who also wrote the script) imbues her story with strains of Irish folklore and the nitty-gritty of the fishing trade. The saturated visual palette — all greens and browns and neon blues — evokes a hint of fantasy, but the director grounds the movie in a kind of spatial realism, carefully deploying the crust and claustrophobia of the ship to atmospheric effect.
Unfortunately, this rigor doesn’t extend to the plot. In real life, the most fearsome pathogens are those that defy prediction, but contagion movies work best when the threat abides by some consistent rules that can give structure to the stakes. The monster in “Sea Fever” mutates haphazardly to accommodate the story’s dramatic shifts: in one scene, it goes swiftly from predatory leech to a benign wisp, batted away easily by the heroine. The film also seems unsure about its own shape, switching indecisively between creature feature, epidemic thriller and environmental drama without articulating any meaty ideas.
Sea Fever
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
