Dead Calm (1989)

Dead Calm (Philip Noyce, 1989) Around 1966, Orson Welles decided to make a thriller, with a small cast and the simplest of plots in an effort to appeal to a mass audience, who had not supported his Shakespearean films of the 1950's and 1960's. It was more like his pulp-thriller films, that he would alternate with his more serious films—The Stranger, The Lady From Shanghai, Touch of Evil, and Mr. Arkadin. The film, entitled The Deep, was based on a 1963 pulp novel by Charles Williams called "Dead Calm" about a couple sailing on their honeymoon who encounter the lone survivor of a sailing disaster. The straggler's story doesn't quite add up, so the husband steers towards the imperiled ship, while the "guest" sleeps down below. When they arrive, the husband goes to investigate, discovering that his suspicions are correct, finding two other survivors who tell him that the man who had rowed to his ship had managed to kill another passenger and suffered a psychotic break. The information comes a little late as, back on his ship, the man has awakened and taken control, sailing away and kidnapping his wife.

Welles shot the film from 1966 through 1969, self-financing (as he usually did) and getting his minimal cast together (himself, Jeanne Moreau, Michael Bryant, Oja Kodar, and Laurence Harvey) when funds were available. At some point, the film was abandoned without a climactic scene being shot, and in 1973 Harvey died, which effectively prevented the film from ever being finished without extensive re-shoots. Welles moved on.

Welles passed on in 1985. Before then, producer Tony Bill had been trying to obtain the rights from Welles, but was always rebuffed. After Welles' death, he gave the book to director Noyce, who persuaded George Miller and Terry Hayes, fresh off their international hit, The Road Warrior, to see if they could acquire the rights from Kodar, Welles' mistress at the time of his death. The story was bought and plans started for a new film made by the now-burgeoning Australian film industry, with Miller producing, Hayes writing, Noyce directing and, as the two leads, Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman—who had appeared in Hayes' mini-series "Bangkok Hilton" and Hayes' and Noyce's "Vietnam". American Billy Zane was cast as the lone survivor of the ship mis-hap. Hayes' screenplay eliminated any other survivors. The story would be a triangle on the high seas.

Noyce's film begins with interior shots of a car making its way through disorienting low-vision rain squalls only to end in an accident that kills the child of Royal Australian Navy officer John Ingram (Neill) and his wife, Rae (Kidman). To deal with their grief, Ingram takes his wife sailing across the Pacific on their elaborate yacht. For awhile, it's just the two of them and their dog and an extensive ocean far from land and memory.

Enter Hughie Warriner (Zane), or more specifically, his ship which the Ingrams see is taking on water. John sails over to the ship to find that a survivor is rowing over to them. They take Hughie on-board and he says that he is the lone survivor on the ship, the others having died of food poisoning. 

But, John is suspicious of the story, so once the exhausted Hughie is asleep below, he rows over to the ship, only to find that it is indeed sinking, but the bodies on-board did not succumb to food poisoning, but to a violent attack, the evidence pointing to none other than Hughie—the very guy who is on-board his ship with his wife. The stowaway takes control of the ship, leaving Ingram alone on the disabled vessel to try and keep it afloat long enough to get it back under power in an effort to pursue the vessel.

The movie then concentrates on two fields of struggle: John Ingram on the abandoned boat, trying to keep it afloat and under power; Rae with their dog (who is, frankly, no help) and a deranged individual who isn't afraid to knock her out in order to commandeer their boat—she has no idea what John has discovered on the wrecked ship that he is now stuck on. While John is struggling to keep things afloat, Rae has to manage with Hughie who vacillates between bi-polar mood swings of fawning neediness to homicidal rage (with over-lying delusions of grandeur). One is not sure which Hughie one is going to get at any moment, so toad-like is his squirming mind.

Noyce ramps up the tension with obvious sexual dynamics. The marriage between John and Rae is an visual mis-match—Neill was in his 40's at the time of filming while Kidman celebrated her 20th birthday during that time. We've become inured to the age differences between romantic leads in the movies—well, you have if you've watched John Wayne or Bogart movies—but, the disparity in their ages creates a risk factor for the solvency of the marriage even before Hughie's third wheel makes the cramped boat too crowded. 

And they are on this trip because of the recent tragedy of losing their child. What frame of mind Rae could be in and how vulnerable she could be in a crisis is always in the back of the mind. How does she resolve the issues, how does she fend off Hughie, who, though unstable, IS a bit of a hunk and closer to her age (even though he is a childish maniac). Hayes and Noyce run a razor's edge of tension for the audience, but the key ingredient in their conspiracy is their barely-out-of-her-teens lead actress, Nicole Kidman.

The role would be tough enough for anybody (Barbara Stanwyck does something similar in the 1953 thriller Jeopardy, but that's Stanwyck) but for someone that young, the idea must have been daunting. Kidman, however, is a quick study, able to turn her mood on a dime that is quite convincing to Hughie—and, at times, the audience. Kidman's Rae is a daunting opponent, but her youth makes you worry about her. By turns seductive and wary, she splits her time trying to communicate with John, while seducing Hughie—trying to delay a situation that will turn outright sexual, and conniving time to plan dealing with him if the situation turns violent, stockpiling weapons and her sleeping prescription to knock him out. It's a very contained cat-and-mouse game. But, one begins to suspect her character does not have allies in the writer or director, putting her at constant risk.

At one point, they make it unavoidable and she does have uncomfortable sex with Hughie because she runs out of ways to deflect it. But, once she does, she amps up the attack, drugging him into unconsciousness and taking back command of the ship to steer it back to her husband. Still, the audience's edginess is not calmed.

For all the jolts and fireworks in the film's conclusion, the filmmakers were forced to go back and add a coda, a "sting in the tail," as the original cut left audiences dissatisfied with the way Hughie's fate is left unresolved and providing a more definitive end with a bit more...flare. It's over-the-top and a lot more jarring than the rest of the film, even if audiences wanted a more dramatic death-stroke. Also, the way it's presented is a bit unfortunate as it weakens Rae's character a bit, making her a damsel in distress that can only be rescued by John's timely arrival, which upturns the partnership the couple have spent the entire movie bonding to dispatch him. 

It's a blunt "playing for keeps" ending that snaps so much of the work done by everyone in the film, which is less of a thriller, than a "tensioner," from the gamut from sexual to circumstantial, never leaving the audience comfortable or complacent. It doesn't quite scuttle the picture, but it does take some of the wind out of its sails.