Dead Calm
| Year: | 1988 |
| Director: | Phillip Noyce |
| Cast: | Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, Billy Zane |
The film that made Nicole Kidman a major star and caught the attention of the world's biggest movie star, who'd one day soon after marry her and put her firmly on track for the A list.
A grieving couple (Kidman and Neill) take a boat trip to get over the death of their infant son in a car accident. While out on the water, a stranger (Zane) shows up claiming to have survived a shipwreck, but with a much darker agenda.
The intricacies of the plot aren't strong enough to have stayed in my memory, but it was sold as a tightly strung thriller full of tension you could cut with a knife, a mood it mostly achieved (apart from the incredibly implausible lightning strike that traps Neill inside the abandoned boat).
A grieving couple (Kidman and Neill) take a boat trip to get over the death of their infant son in a car accident. While out on the water, a stranger (Zane) shows up claiming to have survived a shipwreck, but with a much darker agenda.
The intricacies of the plot aren't strong enough to have stayed in my memory, but it was sold as a tightly strung thriller full of tension you could cut with a knife, a mood it mostly achieved (apart from the incredibly implausible lightning strike that traps Neill inside the abandoned boat).