the audience applauded

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I picked this up for a fiver in HMV after browsing the DVD section. I was drawn by the box and thought it was a horror. I did not read all about its's awards etc and thought it was an out and out horror.It is not - it is a slow burning thriller.As the film went on I started to emphasise with the main character. What would I do in his shoes - was it right to keep your head down and say and do nothing.I thought all the characters were played well although I thought the captain played by Peter Millen, from my neighbouring town Peterhead, could have been a little more menacing and not so much brooding - it looked though he was in physical pain rather than emotional. Special mention to Gary Lewis and Samuli Edelmann. Good character actors with something simmering below the surface.Well worth a look.

Even though I really enjoyed "Cargo", I would like to share a goof I just discovered: After Chris is hit over the head, a crew member examines and cleans the wounds on his forehead. No blood is left on his brow. In the next scene, however, which shows Chris sitting on his berth, the old blood stain has miraculously made its way back to right below Chris' hairline. Other than that, the plot seems perfectly consistent. The setting on an old rotting freighter keeping a dark secret in its bowels surely contributes to the film's overall spooky atmosphere. All the acting is credible, and character development is subtle and thoughtful, although the portrayal of crazy old Herman seems a little cliché-ridden and overdone. Even if it may not quite play in the league of Hitchcock and the likes, "Cargo" is miles above cheap, brainless and inconclusive torture flicks in the fashion of "Hostel."

Daniel Brühl stars as Chris, a plucky German traveler in Africa who stands up to pretty much everyone. In trouble with the local law and having lost his passport, he stows away on a cargo ship headed for Spain. Peter Mullan is brilliantly cast as the captain, Brookes, whose throaty drawl and demeanor are perfectly cast as a captain.Once Chris is exposed as a stowaway on the ship, he becomes a part of the crew, but slowly starts to realize that the law and morality have no meaning on the high seas.The film is moody, well shot, and the acting is exceptional. While many scenes are high intensity and very suspenseful, there is no excessive gore or any "boo" horror therein. The mood and the unanswered (and answered) questions leave the viewer questioning reality and what severe isolation must do to a crew of men such as these.Daniel Bruhl is perfectly cast as Chris; his charisma turns on and off at will, and he transforms his character from complacent to annoyed in a second.Peter Mullan accompanies Bruhl with his stolid, cryptic, and persistent mood, yet comes across as a character you have to like because he demands to be in charge.For a moody, tense thriller with an intelligent back story, see this movie.

An interesting collaborative production out of Spain, staring a leading German actor, and shot in English, "Cargo" starts, continues, and finishes with a permeating sense of dread and discomfort. Imagine the scene in "Das Boot" in which the ruddy engineer loses it, and extend that to a full-length film (adding some mysterious sounds and disappearances of characters) and you get the general feeling. For all its beautiful, gritty imagery, the story leaves some significant questions unanswered. That's not necessarily bad in a film. For example, a question like "Does the captain's ominous drawing of the beautiful parrot turned demon actually mean something literal, or metaphoric?" leaves you with something to think about and discuss. But, other questions (Why and how are the sailors disappearing? Are they being killed or jumping ship from guilt? How exactly does the boy drown when the other thrown-over passenger seems to come out just fine?) leave you wondering if the script was badly cut, the film badly edited, or were bad direction or budgetary restrictions to blame. While glad to have seen it, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to a friend, unless they are a thriller or mystery fanatic.