(2/2011) Movie Review: Sanctum

4 Stars

Review By James R. Holland   

Not For Claustrophobic Viewers Afraid of the Dark or Scuba Diving

This 109-minute, R-Rated, adventure/action/drama film is not “The Titanic” or “Avatar.” Instead of soaring visas this is more like a trip down the drain into an endless sewer system. Mr. Cameron continues to be fascinated with underwater exploration, but this time instead of at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean the exploration takes place deep inside a so-called Supercave. The cavers used underwater camera robots to help them explore and so the rest of the party can observe them and their discoveries.

For any viewers who happened to have read the recent James M. Tabor book, BLIND DESCENT: The Quest To Discover the Deepest Place on Earth, this book will remind you of Supercave explorers American Bill Stone and Russian Alexander Kabanikhin who were racing to be the first man to reach the deepest place on the planet. One was probing the depths of Krubera Cave in the western Caucasus Mountains in the Republic of Georgia while his competitor was exploring the bottom of a Mexican Supercave called Cheve. Both Cavers were prepared to die in order to achieve their place in history.

Richard Roxburgh plays Frank McGuire. His character epitomizes those two actual explorer/adventures. He refuses to fail. He refuses to quite or to give up. That is his life philosophy. Ioan Fruffudd plays Carl Hurley, the bulletproof, reckless financier of the expedition. Rhys Wakefield portrays Josh, the teenage son of Lead Caver Frank McGuire. Alice Parkinson plays Victoria, Carl’s girlfriend and an excellent mountain climber who comes along on the cave exploration almost as a lark. She jokes about what could possibly go wrong while exploring a cave. Allison Cratchley plays Judes, the only other woman involved in the underground exploration.

Supposedly set in New Guinea, most of the film was actually shot at various locations in Australia. Even one familiar Australian Aboriginal is part of the supporting cast. However, since almost all of the filming is deep in the ground and in underwater rivers, the locations don’t play a major part in the movie.

The movie script is based on a true story by co-writer Andrew Wight. He and 14 other cavers spent two days trapped in a cave and had to find an alternate way out of the Cavern. Wight and John Garvin wrote the script. Alister Grierson directed the film, not James Cameron.

The basic plot is that a typhoon on the surface floods the cavern before the cavers can escape and they have to find another way to escape since they can’t leave the way they entered because of the roaring waterfalls of water pouring into the huge cave.

That attempt is mostly what this film is about. Like the recent film “127 Hours” this film seems to be shot in very small, claustrophobic canyons. The main difference is most of these narrow canyons are underwater and deep underground where there is no light other than what the cavers are carrying. They have to escape before their air and batteries are exhausted.

As a former spelunker in my youth, I enjoyed this film, but I suspect it will seem a little too long for most members of the audience. Even I kept checking my watch although nobody in the audience actually left before seeing the end of this exciting struggle to survive epic.

James R. Holland is a film editor, producer, and author–most recently of Adventure Photographer (A Bit of Boston Books/ 2009).  He reviews movies exclusively for Basil & Spice.  Visit James R. Holland’s Writer’s Page.

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