THE NORTH WATER (2021) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Andrew Haigh
Jack O'Connell, Colin Farrell, Sam Spruell,
Stephen Graham, Peter Mullan, Tom Courtenay
A gripping survival adventure about a 19th-century whaling ship that sails too far up into the Arctic and gets stuck in the ice. Tom Courtenay plays the ship's owner, who has paid off the captain (Stephen Graham) to sink the vessel, hoping to collect the insurance. Colin Farrell plays a harpooner named Henry Drax, a swaggering brute whose pastimes include drinking, whoring, molesting cabin boys and killing for the fun of it. Jack O'Connell plays the ship's surgeon, addicted to laudanum and on the run from a troubled past. You won't find much warmth in this anywhere, but it keeps you engaged (and glad not to be in the Arctic), and Farrell's performance is frightening.
