Dead Calm

In 1989, a movie called Dead Calm was released, directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Terry Hayes (based on the novel by Charles Williams), and starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, and Billy Zane. This is such an underrated movie that hearkens back to Hitchcock.

This movie is about a man and wife (Neill and Kidman) who lose their young son in a tragic car accident and decide to go sailing to recover from the emotional loss. John (played by Neill) is an ex-Navy man and his wife Rae (Kidman) was actually driving the car that killed their son. Very shortly into the movie, the two find an adrift schooner that does not answer any radio calls. A man (Hughie, played by Zane) rows to their boat from the schooner. He is a very strange man who at first seems to have a drive to get away from the schooner and everything on board. While Hughie sleeps, John decides to go aboard and see what happened. He finds a boat and an engine that are flooded and a scene of carnage. Hughie has killed his shipmates. When John returns to his boat, Hughie has escaped from his room and hijacks the boat, taking Rae and their dog with him. The movie continues to escalate until John is finally reunited with Rae, but is Hughie still there?

This movie screams Hitchcock like few since his time. It is a small cast (only three main actors) and it has the element of sexuality that is subtle yet obvious, in that no matter what Rae does, she is doing it to get back to John. This movie makes one look at Billy Zane in a totally different way. Yes, he is a jerk in Titanic, but he is a psychotic jerk in this movie. For this reason, I think he is amazing in this movie; you never really know what he’s up to or what he will do. The small scale of the movie is another high point. Since there are few actors, there is little to distract you from the story. You are very in tune with the characters and their feelings. In one way, this is a very character-driven story, but on the other hand, it is very much a thriller. I highly recommend this movie.

Here is a link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ew7fItO7P0