This low budget British thriller does disaster on a small scale. It's a single location film in which four divers find themselves trapped on the ocean floor in a diving bell when the oil operation they're working on is hit by a storm, sinking the vessel above and leaving them stranded and with their oxygen running out. It's a great set-up and one that thrilled me with awe, but sadly the execution of this film is less than stellar and fails to get the right balance of sympathy and suspense. With the constant bad language none of the characters are very sympathetic and most get on your nerves after a while.
The film's failure can be laid directly at the door of the writer, who fumbles the premise after a solid first half an hour. Certainly the experienced cast members, including Danny Huston and Matthew Goode, can't be faulted, although the dullest character (played by Joe Cole) unfortunately gets the lion's share of the screen time. PRESSURE is thrilling at first but as it moves towards the end, the tension should really be mounting but instead the story seems to slow down and devolves into various fantasies experienced by the main characters. I don't want to watch any of this mindless filler, I want to see the protagonists fighting back against impending death, and only Huston seems to do this. In the end, it's a missed opportunity.
The film's failure can be laid directly at the door of the writer, who fumbles the premise after a solid first half an hour. Certainly the experienced cast members, including Danny Huston and Matthew Goode, can't be faulted, although the dullest character (played by Joe Cole) unfortunately gets the lion's share of the screen time. PRESSURE is thrilling at first but as it moves towards the end, the tension should really be mounting but instead the story seems to slow down and devolves into various fantasies experienced by the main characters. I don't want to watch any of this mindless filler, I want to see the protagonists fighting back against impending death, and only Huston seems to do this. In the end, it's a missed opportunity.