Even in a world of hyper-connected, always-on communication, everyone does not see every detail of a tense situation. Sure, the NSA might be watching America’s every movement, monitoring every tiny communication, but the majority of us rarely ever see more than parts of the whole. Hollywood blockbusters are compelled to explain every small detail to an audience, but experts in sweaty-palmed suspense know that some parts are better left to the audience to dwell on.
In the latest film written and directed by Denmark’s Tobias Lindholm (previously of The Hunt and TV’s Borgen), even the titular hijacking of a cargo vessel happens offscreen. The CEO of the shipping company (played by The Killing’s Søren Malling) is quickly plunged into unknown territory with Somali pirates, with the ship’s cook (Johan Philip Asbæk, also from Borgen) used by both parties as an intermediary/bargaining tool/chess piece. He’s at home negotiating the best deal with other companies, but the stakes can no longer be defined on a spreadsheet.
Lindholm exquisitely captures the sense of dread and shared loss of freedom as days stretch into weeks into months. Conditions on the ship spiral, while the cramped boardroom – where negotiations take place via patchy satellite phone calls – becomes just as much a prison, with Malling’s CEO increasingly unhinged. And expect your heart rate to increase every time the action moves to the ship, for fear of something increasingly terrible inflicted upon the cook and his six crew members. The film doesn’t get into geopolitical messaging territory, nor is the crew saved by some heroic act from Vin Diesel on a jet ski. This is the prisoner’s dilemma separated by an ocean, and another must-see effort from Lindholm.
