Pressure, film review: Claustrophobic thriller risks becoming a trial of endurance

(15) Ron Scalpello, 91 mins. Starring: Danny Huston, Matthew Goode, Joe Cole

Matthew Goode as a submariner in ‘Pressure’ (Jeremy Pelzer)

Scalpello's claustrophobic thriller is largely set in a diving tank stranded at the bottom of the ocean, 670ft below sea level. Four men, on a mission to fix an oil pipe, are trapped inside. The breathing gas is fast running out, the ship accompanying them has sunk and the company they work for doesn't seem bothered about saving them.

The film is full of juddering, sweaty close-ups of the divers' faces. "You know there is a storm on the way," one character remarks ominously early on, before they start their mission. "We came here to do a job," is the inevitable, manly rejoinder.

There are some doughty performances from the leads. Huston, in particular, is effective as the hardbitten veteran diver who seems cynical and fatalistic but turns out to have an altruistic side. As in Kevin Macdonald's recent submarine drama Black Sea, the film has moments of intensity and tension but risks becoming a trial of endurance for audiences.