An allied convoy lead by US Navy first time commander Captain Krause (Tom Hanks) is crossing the North Atlantic in 1942 with the aircraft help not coming anytime before 48 hours making them fully vulnerable to the German's submarine wolf pack relentless attacks.
Think of Dunkirk shown through just one way, i.e land, or sea or air, how un-interesting that would be? Or Border with just either Sunny's scenes on land leading to the final attack. Thats how I felt watching Greyhound, its a pretty good thriller for people like me who have no idea about this historical event but I wanted more than the non-stop orders Captain gives to his team from start to end using unknown navy and ship terms.
There's no character development and no shift to any other narrative at all, only a small 2-3 mins hint of romantic angle between Krause and Evelyn (Elisabeth Shue). Same happens with Captain and the cook Cleveland (Rob Morgan), whose interactions are short and lead to nowhere in the end. I would have enjoyed even if they showed some German point of view scenes rather those very unreal phone calls. Even the background score used for German u-boat felt so bollywoodish and bizarre.
The sea burial was one of few scenes that felt a good relief from the war barrage. Tom Hanks is good as always portraying beautifully the confidence and yet the scare inside 'will I succeed or end up costing lives of my people' in his mind. If only his character was built more, the connect would had been possible.
The war scenes despite getting tiring after a while, was still engaging enough. I am being lenient and giving this extra star, its a movie that will work more for those who either know about this history or who don't mind a war film with non-stop attacks.
My Rating : 5.5/10
0 Comments