Cargo is an indie out of Australia, that’s actually based on this short film from 2011, and the short is absolutely fantastic. It’s a perfect example of the storytelling one can accomplish in quite literally seconds, as long as there is specificity and simplicity. I highly recommend watching the short. It’s less than 8 minutes long.
SO…the big question becomes: can the feature film hold that 8 minutes of magic, and expand it out to 90? Yes and no.
THE BLURB:
Stranded in rural Australia in the aftermath of a violent pandemic, an infected father desperately searches for a new home for his infant child and a means to protect her from his own changing nature.
WHAT WORKED:
The very FIRST thing that I think of when evaluating this movie is what a perfect, perfect choice Martin Freeman was to cast as the doomed father. He’s just so freaking good, isn’t he? Instantly, we fall in love with this man and we believe that his love for his family is real, we know that he’s a truly good person, a hero, and we believe that he’ll do whatever he needs to do for his child.
The setting, actually being filmed in the Australian bush, is also wondrous, as is the decision to work in the native aboriginals of that area. More on that later, but fundamentally, it was an interesting decision; how often are white people the saviors and not the other way around? Too often. Also cool was the way the zombification WORKED, which included a whole incubation period where people dug their heads into the ground and stayed that way and was never addressed with a single line of dialogue. They just showed it. That was awesome.
Finally, for reasons I can’t really explain…I love that they start on the river. It’s not a solution to the zombie apocalypse that I think I’ve seen before–though I do have to confess that I don’t see a ton of zombie movies, so it may actually be a genre trope I’m just not aware of–but it’s so simple. Zombies can’t swim. Getting to the water makes so much sense. It’s also such a wonderful juxtaposition with their dire plight, to be floating along so calmly and peacefully, an activity we’d usually associate with times of leisure and pleasure, like vacation, or just ‘getting away from it all’…except the world has just ended, and their fleeing for their lives. Good stuff.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK:
The film as a whole. Sigh.
I really wanted to like this movie. The short was soooo gooood. So impactful and emotional in just those few minutes of screentime. AND you’ve added Martin Freeman to the mix. How could you miss?
They missed by struggling to take that simple concept and spin it out into a full-length feature. The new ideas weren’t as good as the core concept of a man saving his child. It became about too many other things: namely the girl who refuses to leave her zombie dad behind, but also the inevitable essay on human cruelty that seems to be standard for the zombie genre.
The periodic cutting to the aboriginal tribe was also problematic in that it didn’t make sense. It was clunky. It had no context. We didn’t know why we kept going to this group, dancing and making fires. I think it was supposed to inspire a sense of dread, or perhaps better termed as ‘badassery,’ but it didn’t. It was just confusing and boring.
Also, the machinations to get Martin Freeman into the car as we find it at the beginning of the short film were too contrived. Poorly thought out, in that I think it was too complicated. It was also missing the point that the story up to that point is not really that interesting. There’s a reason the short film STARTED in that car. We start our stories at a turning point, or at least, just before a turning point.
And then from there, the story stumbles and meanders through an evil man and his kept woman, which is too cliche to be original or interesting, and a girl who’s wandering about on her own, and who makes the SPACE that this story takes place in very, very confusing. How can Martin Freeman need a vehicle to travel where he needs to travel, and yet this girl can walk there in what seems to be the same amount of time?
In the end, this movie doesn’t hold together on its own; it contorts itself to try and fit its superior source material, while bringing tired ideas to add in. It felt like a movie made by someone who doesn’t know how to make movies…yet. And in that regard, I hope it’s a stepping-stone for this filmmaker to learn from and do better next time.
5 out of 10 – slow and ineffective, but still has some indie charms