The Chamber

The Chamber is a thriller about a military operation taking over a civilian mini-sub with one of the civilians still on the sub. The object of the mission is to descend to the ocean floor to pick up an object before it falls into the wrong hands. That’s basically it, the film is confined to the sub with fleeting glimpses and references to geopolitical situations outside.

The main cast of four are straight out of the filmmaker’s guide to stock characters. Tough guy navy seal type (James McArdle) who begins to mentally unhinges. Hard ass, no nonsense I-am-the-law commander (Charlotte Salt), and military technical expert (Elliot Levey), who is also the more sympathetic one. Then there is, of course, the civilian scientist who is dead against the mission using his sub (Johannes Kuhnke) and you have an Abyss like situation albeit on a teeny budget.

Granted very few directors get Cameron sized budgets to work with, and debut director Ben Parker does reasonably well controlling the action, and gets functional performances from the actors. But it’s the plot and writing that feel loose; the characters are very thinly drawn and clichéd. Also for such a tightly confined situation there is precious little in the way of tension. The ending is effective but by then patience has been tested and its possibly too late.