Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn plumb the depths of fear in submarine thriller Black Sea

REVIEW: Jude Law leads a team of scary misfits on a hunt for Nazi gold in the submarine thriller Black Sea.

Black Sea (M)

Director: Kevin MacDonald (The Last King Of Scotland)

Starring: Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn, Scoot McNairy, Jodie Whitaker

Rating: ***

Down among the dread men

Set any old thriller inside a submarine, and it isn’t long before the claustrophobia comes flooding in.

Under the expert direction of Kevin MacDonald, Black Sea plunges the depths of dread at all-too-close quarters within a creaky old Russian rust-bucket.

The captain of this vessel is Robinson (Jude Law), an embittered seaman recently laid off by his longtime employer, a marine salvage company.

The job cost Robinson both his marriage and family. With no redundancy offer on the table, Robbo decides to organise his own payout package.

Word has just come through of a Nazi U-boat sitting on the floor of the Black Sea. According to those in the know, the thing is loaded to the hilt with many millions of bucks in gold bars. No wonder it sunk.

The way Robinson sees it, that treasure can’t remain in the one place forever. Better still, international maritime law says the first one to get their paws on the bounty can play the finders-keepers card without fear or favour.

Soon enough, Robinson has assembled a nightmarish dream team of divers (led by a gleefully psychotic Ben Mendelsohn) and sailors (most of whom cannot speak English) to pilot his second-hand submarine towards the fortune.

Not surprisingly, good old human nature and its in-built need for greed begin to get the better of all aboard with each passing metre of the sub’s slow descent.

While the movie does waste some hard-earned unease by cutting away to flashbacks on dry land every so often, the deep distrust festering among Robinson and his crew keeps the viewer’s nerves on a razor-sharp edge when it really counts.

Originally published as Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn plumb the depths of fear in submarine thriller Black Sea