the crew
review by memory grove, yahoo.com, july 8, 2004
Heavy on atmosphere, light on plot and characters
The Crew is a film about a cocky Miama attorney's boat, The Retainer. Let's face it, the boat is surely the star. It's a yacht of about 50 feet or so in length. On the yacht are the attorney, his girlfriend, a buddy, and his sister and brother-in-law, who all meet in Miama on a beautiful summer day to take a day trip for shopping in Nassau, Bahamas.
The people on the boat are all uneasy and on edge, once they are underway, except for the light hearted buddy of the attorney. The attorney's girlfriend seems to be a medical student, preoccupied with flashcards concerning her studies (then why wouldn't she be more serious about studying then?). Meanwhile, the sister and her husband seem to be having marital problems (to be expected when a couple marries young, and when the female is so much better looking than the male). So the ride starts off being tense, albeit a beautiful day at sea.
To make matters worse, the entire party spots a boat towards the horizon which appears to be on fire, and there are two passengers on the burning boat. After the usual argument over whether or not to give help, reason wins. The attorney and the brother in law head over to help, and pick up two oddballs. Here's where the trouble starts.
One of the strangers appears to have breasts and no shirt. Yes, this actor is in fact a man, hopped up on female hormones. The other stranger is a beautiful woman, an undocumented alien from somewhere in the Spanish-speaking world. Unfortunately for our already tense party, the he-she has a gun. With this gun, he commandeers the boat toward Bimini for a rendezvous, which is sort of unclear.
The plot breaks away from this point. Although the role of the he-she stranger is the plot vehicle that fuels the conflict, I'm not sure what this character wants with all these hostages. I am not sure what the undocumented alien wants. Also, I am kind of annoyed at a slight rip-off of Dog Day Afternoon from the source of the plot development.
But I do know that the attorney must have his boat back and is unusually edgy about losing his boat to the stranger. Why? Could there be some sort of contraband on the boat, perhaps? It is obvious that his selfish behavior and his tendency not to give help has a touch of self-preservation in it. Perhaps his drug-dealing clients have some sort of ownership in The Retainer? So his cockiness sort of does make sense.
Although I was a little confused by the plot and not satisfied with the character development, I still enjoyed this film because of its feel. It's a beautiful yacht, a beautiful and charming set of characters originally on the yacht, and the people themselves are beautiful. The primary colors of the ocean, the water, and the costumes, is particularly visually appealing. For sure, this is an eye candy film if you like yachts, sailing, or pretty people.
What a treat it must have been to make this movie. You'd be on a yacht or in the water, or a beautiful island with a lot of twenty and thirty somethings. It takes me back ten years or so when I was in college.
Also, if this is on the FX station, I would totally miss it. FX does NOT roll the credits in a manner which can be seen. I have had a hard time trying to figure out the cast, and who's who (other than Viggo Mortensen, who is the bad guy in lots of films I've seen lately, now that I recognize him from his big role in LOTR). So help on this please would be appreciated.
