TV MOVIE: Flood

Flood (ITV, 2007)
Dir. Tony Mitchell
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Jessalyn Gilsig, Tom Courtenay, Joanna Whaley, David Suchet

Flood exploded onto tv screens last night in the first part of this made for tv movie drama. Now, apparently this was first screened back in August last year, but I seem to have missed the boat (no pun intended) on that one. The teaser trailers which have been shown on ITV over the last few weeks were enough to get me interested. Well, it's Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty) and David Suchet (Agatha Christie's Poirot) in an epic looking movie about London being flooded. What could go wrong?

Well, generally nothing massive does go wrong. I'm talking in film terms here, not in the sense that London is hit by a huge wall of water and thousands of people are swept away. That's pretty bad. But the film is well produced, the cast are all great, and the story unfolds gradually in a way that means, at the dramatic cliffhanger last night, I was hooked enough to want to watch next week. Having thought about it, though, this could be more the fact that I just want to know which of the characters will survive and if it really will play out like an English version of other epic disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day. Yes, I can just hear David Suchet making some moving national address over the television as the camera pans out and the tv set floats upstream.

Let me explain the basic concept of the film. A huge storm travels across from the US and creates a massive waver which wipes out the Scottish town of Wick. The Met Office, trying their hardest to remain calm in the line of Suchet's piercing stare, make some pretty shoddy predictions about the storm blowing over. But of course it does not. Leonard Morrison (Courtenay) is a slightly estranged scientist who predicts that the weather will combine with high spring tides, overwhelm the Thames barrier and devastate London. Morrison's son (who, for the record, has issues with his father from his youth) and his ex-wife (always a winning combo in a drama) are the only people in the know who can possibly save the day.

The special effects are pretty spectacular. And the writers have considered the effects of a catastrophe of this scale on London's underground system, population, schools and hospitals. In fact, the scenes in the 'sit. room' with Suchet who plays the Deputy PM, and his team are some of the most convincing and tense. All in all, it's an interesting and not entirely improbable idea. But the film does steal from the aforementioned Hollywood blockbusters in its delivery. There have already been far too many scenes with people shaking fists and screaming 'noooooooo!' Even the regular freeze frame intercut with a digital clock ticking, very reminiscent of 24, could get annoying.

But I will tune in next Sunday nevertheless. I want to know if they manage to save London. If they do, the film will seriously plummet in my opinions, because they have pretty much set the scene for mass devastation. No, I'm not some sick freak who likes to watch suffering, but I do hate the, 'but wait, three people really can fight a 25 foot wall of water and win,' Hollywood-esque sentiment. British film can do much better than that. I'll keep you posted.

My rating (so far): *** 3 stars
Reccommendation: If you watched the first part, watch the second or you might go mad. If you didn't start it, don't bother.