Friday, 23 February 2024

VOD: The Abyss (2023) a.k.a. Avgrunden (dir: Richard Holm, 2023)

"Sucked into a sandpit?  That's a new one!"

This Swedish Netflix drama/disaster movie finds the world's biggest underground mine about to cave in and wreak havoc on the nearby town, which is being relocated.  Playing like a low-key and largely TV-level version of its Hollywood earthquake movie equivalents - complete with partying teenagers in the mountains as the prologue shreddies, plucky middle-aged nearly-divorced female head of  mine security with a rebellious daughter and missing son - the film is generally played earnestly and made solidly.  To its credit, the film actually shows how the characters are affected emotionally to the unfolding events (with some uncompromising moments of injury and death), and the lack of a bombastic Hollywood-style soundtrack is refreshing for the genre.  The contained finale is staged well, and Tuva Novotny is fully invested in the lead role both emotionally and physically.  Avgrunden is relatively small-scale and offers little new for the genre, but it deploys its resources effectively and is well-made overall.

 

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