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Pretty Good

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Dumbest premise for a movie ever. An intelligent Naval officer leaves his wife and boat with a stranger on board to get in to a dingy and row over to another boat when he could have just driven his boat over just like his wife started to do. Really? Does any one but me see how implausible this seems? lmao

Released in 1989, "Dead Calm" is the story of a grieving Australian couple vacationing 1200 miles from land on their yacht in the South Pacific (Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman). Horror ensues after they rescue a stranger from a small dinghy (Billy Zane) and the built-in protections of civilization are nowhere to be found."Dead Calm" is one of the greatest horror/thrillers ever made. The "monster" is human – a psycho nut job -- which isn't anything new, of course. It's the confined location of the open sea and the cut-off-from-the-world atmosphere that make "Dead Calm" great, along with all-around excellent filmmaking, including the breathtaking cinematography and magnificent score by Graeme Revell.Neill shows that he has the gravitas to carry a film as the male protagonist, which is why he was snagged for 1993's "Jurassic Park." Kidman similarly shines as the female protagonist in her first major motion picture. Incidentally, Neill was 41 and Kidman 21 at the time of filming. Likewise, Zane de-shines as the antagonist and shows why he was picked for the villain of 1997's "Titanic." There's not much dialogue because this is a visually/musically based film and not dialogue-driven. As such, the acting HAS to be absolutely convincing, and so it is.The film runs 96 minutes and was shot off the east coast of Australia (Gold Coast, Great Barrier Reef, etc.).GRADE: A

Decent thriller. Original setting and plot. Good direction by Phillip Noyce: good build-up and tension is maintained well. Could easily have degenerated into usual psychological-drama/slasher-horror stuff but there are enough sub-plots and ebbs and flows to keep it interesting.On the down side, some parts of the plot feel contrived and implausible.Good work from Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman in the lead roles, and even Billy Zane is okay in his role. Interesting to note that this was Kidman's last movie before hitting the Hollywood big time (and meeting Tom Cruise...). Her next movie was Days of Thunder...

After tragically losing their son in a car accident, wealthy Australian Sam Neill (as John Ingram) and his exceptionally beautiful young wife Nicole Kidman (as Rae) take their dog "Benji" and set sail for a hopefully restful vacation on their yacht. Out on the "Dead Calm" Pacific Ocean waters, they find handsome Billy Zane (as Hughie Warriner) in distress. He claims his boat is sinking and everyone else on board has died from food poisoning. As this seems a likely story, they rescue the attractively shirtless and suspicious-looking Mr. Zane. This leads to the problems you'd expect, under these circumstances. This situation, probably done best by Roman Polanski in "Knife in the Water" (1962), is built on the supposition that the handsome newcomer may be dangerous and will reveal an aggressive sexual interest in the pretty woman. The cast is attractive, the formula works and the photography (by Dean Semler) is beautiful.****** Dead Calm (4/7/89) Phillip Noyce ~ Nicole Kidman, Billy Zane, Sam Neill, Rod Mullinar