Stars: Tom Hanks, Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan, Elisabeth Shue
Director: Aaron Schneider
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Sound)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars
We continue on with our 2020 movie salute with a film that might've been a surprise summer hit, but instead found itself as one of the flagships for AppleTV+ & its original content launches. It says something about 2020 that Tom Hanks, arguably the most reliable movie presence on the planet, has crossed over to the medium of streaming platforms (it's a very short list at this point of movie stars that haven't at least dabbled in streaming or regular cable series in the new, supposed "post-movie star" era), but with Greyhound he has found himself in that situation. My question when watching this film was whether or not this was a case of the studio dumping a potential major film because it was no good (it cost around $50 million to make, a gargantuan take for a movie that won't be in theaters) like Disney+ did with Artemis Fowl, or whether this was simply a byproduct of the year, a movie that wasn't worth keeping on the shelf for another year. As I watched, I found the truth to be somewhere in the middle-this isn't a disaster, though it's also not the kind of film you'd keep-in-memory very long after watching were it not one of the few effects-driven pictures coming out this summer.
(Spoilers Ahead) Commander Ernest Krause (Hanks) is the center of our film today. He is commanding an escort group that is bringing a fleet of merchant ships to England during World War II. It's Krause's first command despite a long service in the US Navy, and before he leaves he bids adieu to his love Evelyn (Shue), proposing they get married when he returns. During the escort, the fleet are continually targeted by German submarines, and we get the sense of what is happening from the claustrophobia of the ship (there are no cutaways from the ship, and Hanks' scene with Shue is the only moment we really get off of the "Greyhound"). While several ships sink, and a few men, including one of Krause's mess attendants (played by Morgan), die, the convoy is largely successful-after not sleeping or eating for days, Krause successfully rendezvouses with the British command, and hands off the fleet, finally able to rest.
The movie's calling card is its effects, which are solid. I was blessed enough to see this at an outdoor screening on a garage projection screen, so I got to enjoy this in as close to a movie theater setting as I've had in many months, and the big screen helps. The movie has tense, rough seas & is unforgiving in the way it handles some of the attacks, with us getting little reprieve as an audience. The action sequences do a great job of depicting just how easily these ships can rock, capsize, even sink, and how little relief there is crossing the Atlantic in this way. This is surely the reason that this drew AppleTV to the picture (other than Hanks' star power)-you can tell quickly that the movie gets its money worth, and while this isn't a $200 million blockbuster (there's nothing revolutionary in what you see), the tight editing makes sure we get riveting drama during the fights.
The problem is the movie's characters have no depth. The supporting characters are almost interchangeable, to the point where when Morgan's mess attendant died, you don't recognize the name at first (you just assume as he's suddenly not onscreen). The movie's story is weak-the action scenes are great, but the plot has too many ancillary characters, and is badly framed. Shue & Hanks, playing their opening scene as if they're both 25 when they're far past the point of "sending my man off to war" newness, feels bizarrely framed, and Shue literally could just be named "love interest" for all of the depth the script gives her. Hanks is a movie star worth watching always, but this is one of his least inspired turns in a while, and a reminder that you can't just make the film's effects the star-hiring all of the Oscar-blessed talent in the world won't save you if you don't give the story some dimension.
(Spoilers Ahead) Commander Ernest Krause (Hanks) is the center of our film today. He is commanding an escort group that is bringing a fleet of merchant ships to England during World War II. It's Krause's first command despite a long service in the US Navy, and before he leaves he bids adieu to his love Evelyn (Shue), proposing they get married when he returns. During the escort, the fleet are continually targeted by German submarines, and we get the sense of what is happening from the claustrophobia of the ship (there are no cutaways from the ship, and Hanks' scene with Shue is the only moment we really get off of the "Greyhound"). While several ships sink, and a few men, including one of Krause's mess attendants (played by Morgan), die, the convoy is largely successful-after not sleeping or eating for days, Krause successfully rendezvouses with the British command, and hands off the fleet, finally able to rest.
The movie's calling card is its effects, which are solid. I was blessed enough to see this at an outdoor screening on a garage projection screen, so I got to enjoy this in as close to a movie theater setting as I've had in many months, and the big screen helps. The movie has tense, rough seas & is unforgiving in the way it handles some of the attacks, with us getting little reprieve as an audience. The action sequences do a great job of depicting just how easily these ships can rock, capsize, even sink, and how little relief there is crossing the Atlantic in this way. This is surely the reason that this drew AppleTV to the picture (other than Hanks' star power)-you can tell quickly that the movie gets its money worth, and while this isn't a $200 million blockbuster (there's nothing revolutionary in what you see), the tight editing makes sure we get riveting drama during the fights.
The problem is the movie's characters have no depth. The supporting characters are almost interchangeable, to the point where when Morgan's mess attendant died, you don't recognize the name at first (you just assume as he's suddenly not onscreen). The movie's story is weak-the action scenes are great, but the plot has too many ancillary characters, and is badly framed. Shue & Hanks, playing their opening scene as if they're both 25 when they're far past the point of "sending my man off to war" newness, feels bizarrely framed, and Shue literally could just be named "love interest" for all of the depth the script gives her. Hanks is a movie star worth watching always, but this is one of his least inspired turns in a while, and a reminder that you can't just make the film's effects the star-hiring all of the Oscar-blessed talent in the world won't save you if you don't give the story some dimension.
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