Mark Reviews Movies: GREENLAND

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 17, 2020

There's less a sense of inevitable doom in Greenland than a sense of inevitable formula. That's too bad. For the first half hour or so, Chris Sparling's screenplay almost seems to go out of its way to avoid the obvious.

The premise is a pretty familiar one. A comet from another solar system is scheduled to pass by Earth soon. Obviously, it won't simply be a pass-by, or the movie would either be finished quickly or have an entirely different story. Sparling prepares us for a series of sequences of devastation, when it's announced on TV that the comet's tail is so long that astronomers can't see its end (Whether or not this is impressive depends entirely upon what kind of equipment they're using, but let's assume it's the good stuff). Fragments of the comet are breaking off, so of course, this means that impacts of various sizes are almost guaranteed throughout the course of the story.

What's surprising at first is how little the comet figures into the story, except as an omen for the audience of what's to come (No one in the movie seems even slightly worried that an object that large and that close to Earth might lead to some problems—as if they've never seen a movie like the one they're in). This is just a story about a family, having some problems and trying to put things back together.

John Garrity (Gerard Butler), a structural engineer, and his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin) have hit a rough patch (for a reason that isn't explained until the third act). They're trying to move past it, though, if not for their marriage then for their 7-year-old son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd), who is diabetic—a detail that seems like it will lead to some complications later, when the chaos begins, but actually pays off in a slightly different way.

Things at home are awkward and a little tense. The parents are planning a party for the son. The news on TV and radio is wall-to-wall coverage of the comet—all of it innocent and awestruck about the sight and the prospect of pieces hitting Earth with little effect. John has to run to the store, and while there, his phone buzzes with an alert—just for him.

He and his family have been selected by the government to be transported to a shelter. Obviously, we still know something is about to happen, but the characters remain naïvely oblivious. They remain that way until a fragment of the comet, which was supposed to land in the water, obliterates an entire city in Florida.

One of the more admirable things about Sparling and director Ric Roman Waugh's approach to this material is how grounded it is. There are no shots of the comet in space (save for one or two on news broadcasts). We don't suddenly travel to various places around the globe, as the pieces fall to Earth and cause devastation (The impact in Florida is also observed on a broadcast, and radio reports explain how other cities are meeting similar fates). If it's not happening to or near the family, we don't see it.

The approach quickly establishes that the filmmakers are less interested in spectacle than they are in this human story. It's appreciated, for sure, although they eventually lose track of that goal in favor of a lot of running and chasing, as well as some fighting and, inevitably, trying to outrun falling space debris.

Before that, though, the screenplay sets up a pretty despairing scenario for the family. First, they're the only ones among their friends and neighbors who have been selected by the government for the shelter—a fact that really matters once it's revealed that a "planet-killer" of a comet chunk will hit Earth in two days. Second, they encounter a coldly cruel sense of pragmatism upon reaching the military base, where planes will transport the selected thousands to safety. This plan isn't just about saving a lucky several thousand. It's about the potential of having to restart humanity, and from that viewpoint, it simply doesn't make sense to take just anybody.

The point is that this story sets up a few tricky, difficult questions and conflicts of morality, so it's unfortunate to watch as all this early promise fades. The family is separated one member at a time (meaning that the eventual payoff of them resolving their issues is slightly undermined, since they spend so much time apart), only to encounter a bunch of obstacles and complications along the path toward reuniting and finding a way to reach the safety they have been denied.

There's some action (a battle at the military compound), and then, there's a lot more of it (chases and fights and narrow escapes). The characters and their relationships stop mattering as much until the third act, and even then, the focus is momentary, because there's a race against time to find shelter before the cataclysmic event.

Greenland does take itself seriously and maintain a personal perspective as the world falls to ruin. The filmmakers, though, seem more interested in giving us what we expect, instead of trying to tell this particular story in a different way.

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