The Red Sea Diving Resort

Starring: Chris Evans, Alessandro Nivola, Michael Kenneth Williams, Haley Bennett, Greg Kinnear, Ben Kingsley, Michiel Huisman, Alex Hassell, Chris Chalk
Directed by: Gideon Raff
Rating: TV-MA
Genre: Drama, Thriller
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Israeli agents attempt to smuggle Ethiopian Jewish refugees out of Sudan.

Review:

Tim: The Red Sea Diving Resort takes an unbelievable true story designed to tug at our heartstrings and simply botches the execution. Gideon Raff's film is a underperformer. He had all the ingredients for a truly effective movie, but he can't make it happen. This might be an indicator of lack of talent, or it could be that Raff just needs more time to learn how to make great films. Regardless of the reasons, this is a movie that doesn't quite work.

It felt like this movie really wanted to be Argo. It's an unbelievable true story about a crazy plot to rescue innocent people from certain death. However, this film isn't well made. The characters are paper thin. There's very little sense of excitement or intensity. You don't feel much watching this movie. I found myself continually asking questions that should have been answered (or maybe were answered in unmemorable ways). It's simply not that compelling. The movie moves through the motions and tells it's story, but it's never riveting enough.

The cast was good, but they are saddled with thin caricatures of people. I like Chris Evans and he's done some exceptional work in recent years, but Raff doesn't fully leverage his talents here. It's a perfectly decent performance Evans gives, but his personality isn't able to emerge. I like Alessandro Nivola as well. He was sightly better in his supporting role- he actually got some opportunity to show his skill. Michael K. Williams felt slightly miscast- he's a good actor but I never really believed his character here. Haley Bennett has always felt very hit-or-miss to me. There's times when I really like her and times when I don't. She wasn't great here. Her performance was too stoic, too bland to be very good. By the end of the film, I don't feel like I understood or cared about her character at all. As the main female in the cast, she needed to be better. Greg Kinnear and Ben Kingsley were solid in supporting roles. Chris Chalk was great in his supporting role- he had multiple opportunities to make us feel something about his character and capitalized on all them.

I was a bit frustrated with this movie. It should have been a big success. It tells a "truth is stranger than fiction" story that features brave men and women selflessly risking their lives to help other people. It's a story I knew nothing about and as many people as possible should know about this event and what happened. Unfortunately, the movie fails the story. It's not nearly good enough, interesting enough, or compelling enough. It felt flat- events happen, we move forward toward the conclusion. There's not enough highs, not enough to make us sit up and pay attention. This movie is decent in the end, but it had everything it needed to be significantly more effective. It's hard not to see this as anything other than a missed opportunity.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Argo, Hotel Mumbai