Review: The Bay


Inexperienced TV reporter Kether Donohue (with a dumpy wardrobe and cropped hair) narrates video footage telling the tale she witnessed firsthand of an ecological disaster that befell a small Maryland town a couple of years back where human beings dropped like flies after becoming infected with a deadly parasitic virus. Christopher Denham plays an oceanographer, and Robert Treveiler is a doctor for the CDC.

 

Noted director Barry Levinson (“Good Morning, Vietnam”, “Rain Man”, “Wag the Dog”) tries his hand at ‘faux-doco’ filmmaking with this dry and boring 2012 mixture of ‘found footage’ horror film and hippie Greenpeace movie. It doesn’t go well. It never convinces as real, the actors are clearly actors, with the very recognisable Christopher Denham from “Argo” and Robert Treveiler as one of the CDC guys is a veteran of many films and especially TV shows, though at least in his case I wasn’t able to pinpoint exactly where I recognised him from (Probably his two stints on “Dawson’s Creek”). The illusion is thus shattered. Then again, if this is meant to be a film based on a supposedly official TV news report, why is it shot like a bad wedding video by cinematographer Josh Nussbaum? Because no one here has any idea what they’re doing, that’s why. It’s hard to look at and focus on anything, at least for me it was. There are practically no stable shots except when the camera is fixed (CDC Conference calls, for instance). That’s awful camerawork, both in fictional and real terms.

 

I was out of this film’s world from moment one and never recovered. This is such a shame, because if Levinson had made this as a straight horror film, it might’ve had a chance. Why did he make it this way? The faux doco thing is about ten years past its used by date anyway. If anything, it feels like a message movie masquerading as entertainment. It certainly isn’t effective as entertainment, as it’s done in completely dry fashion. Even “Contagion” wasn’t this dull, and “Contagion” was pretty damn dull.

 

Lead actress Kether Donohue is certainly quirky and unusual in a not unappealing way, but that’s about it for being nice, I’m afraid. This film ended up making me angry for what it could’ve been and isn’t. The screenplay is by Michael Wallach from a story by he and the director. What were you thinking, Barry?

 

Rating: C-

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