Dreyfuss struggles for air

POSEIDON
Directed by Wolfgang Peterson
Certificate 15

Richard Dreyfuss takes on the mantle of trying to raise this film from the depths. But his stab at bringing a measured air to the proceedings is ultimately a failure.
We meet Richard Nelson (Dreyfuss) on New Years Eve. He is on a cruise, and he is depressed. After lavishing $5,000 on a bottle of plonk for his fellow diners, he goes on deck to check his mobile phone for a much-needed message from a loved one. When no ‘Happy New Year’ is forthcoming, he lobs the phone into the drink and then clambers on to a railing, ready to launch himself into the sea as well.
But then he looks up – a roar of water and a rogue wave hits. And in an instant, he goes from wanting to kill himself to fighting for his life.
The film is visually spectacular. When the ship capsizes you see where the $160 million budget went.
Dreyfuss is joined by a motley collection of good looking ladies and chisel-jawed men, fighting their way out of the ship.
Robert Ramsay (Kurt Russell) is a fireman turned Mayor of New York (retired).
He is travelling on the liner with his daughter and her boyfriend. He proves to be the sort of industrious and selfless person you would like to have around when disaster strikes – a reference, it seems, to New York’s former Mayor Rudolf Guilliani, and a subtle way of showing how the human spirit will live on when something horrible happens. But Poseidon simply feels like a chase movie.
The characters have to make their way through the ship, avoiding wiggling electrical leads, sudden drops and unexpected waves as the ship lurches back and forth. In terms of suspense, there is one scene where a lift shaft has to be traversed that tests the nerves, but after a while the sight of the survivors struggling to escape the rising water becomes a little dry.