Lifeboat

Saddled with as thin a premise as one could envision, Lifeboat ultimately comes off as a disappointing endeavor that boasts few elements designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest – with the narrative, which follows several shipwreck survivors as they attempt to cope with an increasingly perilous situation, suffering from a palpable lack of momentum that grows more and more problematic as time progresses. Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock’s typically strong directorial choices ensure that, at the very least, Lifeboat never quite morphs into the dull drama one might’ve feared, with the passable vibe heightened by strong performances and a handful of engrossing sequences. (There is, in terms of the latter, a very tense interlude detailing the buildup to the amputation of a character’s leg.) It’s clear, however, that the biggest problem here is an almost total lack of compelling characters, as scripter Jo Swerling’s ongoing efforts at transforming the movie’s protagonists into sympathetic figures fall continuously flat – with the talented cast, which includes Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, and Hume Cronyn, unable to alleviate the film’s decidedly less-than-engrossing atmosphere. The anticlimactic finale ensures that Lifeboat ends on a less-than-enthralling note that’s admittedly right in line with everything preceding it, and it’s finally impossible to label the movie as anything more than a cinematic experiment that just doesn’t work.

** out of ****