Review of film: “SANCTUM” -- It’s easy to get in a “Funk” if you choose to SPELUNK!

Review of film:  “SANCTUM”  --  It’s easy to get in a “Funk” if you choose to SPELUNK!

New Guinea is a huge island lying north of Australia & just south of the Equator.  It was first visited by Europeans in the 16^th Century, and control was divided up by various countries.  Natives there speak more than 700 different languages, and much of the land has seen little real exploration.  It was heavily occupied by many thousands of Japanese and then American troops during World War II…

…  In 1975, the eastern half of the island --  called Papua New Guinea --  was given independence by Australia.  At the far eastern part of the country is the Province of Milne Bay.  On a volcanic island called Normanby off the east coast is a district headquarters called Esa’Ala--  a name used in a story about a massive CAVE system by the movie’s co-writer Andrew Wight, who based his writing on some true “situations” he experienced in cave diving…

…  Carl (IOAN GRUFFUD) is a rich young man who’s funding the exploration of the Cave system.  Riding in his helicopter with his girlfriend Victoria (ALICE PARKINSON), he warmly greets Josh (RHYS WAKEFIELD) who’s the son of the spelunker (cave explorer) Frank (RICHARD ROXBURGH) who’s heading-up the expedition into Esa-Ala…

…  We think of most caves as being in the “side” of hills and mountains.  Esa-Ala (in this movie) instead begins as a colossal HOLE in the ground, which at its bottom leads to a tentacle of cave passages which Richard thinks (& hopes) somehow leads to an outlet in the nearby SEA, & he’s using a lot of technical devices to try to FIND that connection…

…  Ioan (in this) is an “adrenaline junkie”:  while rock-climber Rhys shows Alice how to rappel down ropes into the huge deep hole, Ioan blithely uses a DIFFERENT method to beat them to the bottom…

Meanwhile, Richard has his crew, including veteran Liz (NICOLE DOWNS) involved in doing some DIVING into a pond-like water system found in one of the cave passages because that’s the only way to travel to some other dry passages…

…  Well, as often happens in life (& especially in action-THRILLER movies), a bunch of things go “WRONG”:  Liz has some problems, & a huge “cyclone” RAINSTORM threatens to flood the caverns from above…  Plus, there are numerous “PERSONALITY” conflicts, such as between Rhys & his Dad Richard whom he feels has never really CARED about him or others…

…  Will the threatened RAINSTORM strike the cave, &, if so, what problems will that cause?...  Will there be further troubles with the expedition PERSONNEL?...  Will they find the hoped-for link to the SEA (& will it involve more diving into water areas underground)?...

…  This movie was produced by James Cameron who did “AVATAR”, & it exhibits that film’s unusually excellent use of 3-D in adding “DEPTH” to the story-telling (tho the slowness of the camera setups reportedly drove Richard crazy)…

…  The film is unusually EFFECTIVE in giving you a “CLAUSTROPHOBIC” feeling of the difficulty of having to maneuver thru very small, tight & odd-shaped areas to get where you’re “going”.  It also is very successful in communicating the problems of having to breathe UNDERWATER when you’re running out of air & have to “share” oxygen supplies to stay alive…

…  Overall, the ACTING is very good--  tho it was a bit “difficult” to buy the sudden “CHANGE” in Ioan’s personality when troubles arose (but I consider that mainly to be caused by the limitations of what was WRITTEN & “DIRECTED” for him in the role)…  There’s great TENSION built up in the life-threatening actions of the story…

…  Since the film SUCCEEDED in what it tried to do (-- a friend commented, it made her FEEL very “claustrophobic”, & the action was intense, interesting & gripping --), I am rating it as 8.25 out of 10 stars…

  (o_
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