Starring:
Distributor: Independent
Runtime: 131 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2013
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Metro is a disaster film, a spectacle, with chaos and heroism in the Moscow underground. It emulates the styles of the American disaster films and makes quite a success of the attempt. It is very strong on special effects as well as stunt work.
The film also has a human story running through it, sometimes referred to by several characters as soap opera. However, it gives a human underlying narrative to the disaster story.
The film opens well, highlighting Moscow, its underground train system, the tunnels, water mysteriously seeping through the roof and the sides of the tunnel. An old security man makes a report and the officials ignore him. In the meantime we are shown an emotional triangle, the wife and mother having an affair, her husband a doctor working hard in a hospital, the daughter missing her mother and asking questions about her. This is all done very early in the film and then it gets some of these characters on to the train and into the disaster area.
There are also explanations as to why the disaster happens. There is a device of the young man in the train, flirting with a young woman, explaining that he was a tour guide and giving an outline of the track, tunnels, the history, a secret bunker, river levels… Where later shown the officials meeting and discovering the truth about the situation and discussing plans and backup plans, especially for evacuation of the city. A further complication is that the streets of more Moscow are experiencing gridlock with too much traffic.
There is a focus on time, the action happening over one morning, with frequent references to clocks. There is also a deadline for searching for survivors before the tunnel is sealed and liquid nitrogen is poured into the tunnel to permanently block it.
The film focuses on the peak hour, the crowds of people on platforms, and in the train carriages.
And when the spectacle comes of walls collapsing, trains careering out of control, off the tracks, people being bounced about, the photography and effects work very convincingly.
Because the screenplay has been careful to highlight several characters, they form the survival group and a lot of time is spent with them, walking through the water, uncertain about what was to happen, experiencing waves, even getting to a skylight and trying to shout to people and traffic passing by, without success.
And throughout the disaster, there is conflict because the father and his daughter are on the train as well as the wife’s lover. And this conflict comes to a head.
The film is strong on showing people using their wits, taking advantage of whatever means are available for trying to survive, and explanations are given as to what was happening and why.
The film comes to a satisfactory end, and has capitalised on all the conventions of the disaster genre. And a little humorous final moment with the dog!
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