Review: The Cave

I think virtually everyone is aware of the story of the Thai boys football team that was trapped in a cave after heavy rainfall last year. 

Seeing that it was going to be made into a film had me interested as true story events usually fair well in this medium.

Sadly, this had the feeling of a straight-to-TV film. Thankfully, it felt like one of the better ones. But it still played out like one. The poor acting, the awkward under-edited scenes, the constant over-use of certain tropes that became almost annoying.

It does pain me to say it as I saw this at the Leeds Film Festival and the director did his film studies degree in Leeds. Plus, he was actually at the screening doing a Q&A. For me this homecoming wouldn't have this review as a welcoming site.

I will say however, you can feel the passion in this project throughout. That does count for a lot, and to some people that's more important.

Plus, there were some effective underwater scenes and some nice drone tracking shots of the Thailand landscape. The way they explained the tricky situation our characters were in was easy to follow and you could feel the risks being taken.

But sadly, the negatives outweigh the positives.

I mentioned before about the poor acting. It didn't help that the director cast some of the roles to the actual people from the true event playing themselves.

While I appreciate the sentiment, the lack of acting was too noticeable to ignore. It didn't work for Clint Eastwood in 'The 15:17 To Paris', it won't work here.

There are some scenes during the credits of interviews with the real people who were also starring in the film. Their reactions during those segments were much more endearing then theirs in the film.

That for me confirmed it that I honestly believe that this would have been much more effective as a documentary.

I had feelings about during the film. But that final moment sealed it.

I think if the director had maybe used the bits they filmed and use them as reconstructions. Alonh with having interviews with the real people taking the majority of the runtime. Then we would have a successful and impactful film on our hands.

Unfortunately we dont. But at least the passion for telling story is there, and it's easily the films biggest strength.

Rating: 6/10