New Jersey Stage January 2015 | Page 86

er Fraser (Mendelsohn, referred to as a Brit, but very much sporting his native Aussie accent) expresses his distaste at the idea of the Russian crew members receiving the same cut as the Brits. As the nervy Daniels points out to Robinson, the fewer men who make it back, the larger everyone’s cut will ultimately be. Given the reputations of some of the narcissists onboard, this makes for a tense, paranoid trip to the dark depths of the big blue. New Jersey Stage Director Macdonald does an effective job of conveying the claustrophobic tension of this premise, his camera roaming the tight corridors of the submarine in a way that recalls, as does the male dominated milieu of the film, John Carpenter’s The Thing. James Cameron’s Aliens is clearly an influence also, as McNairy’s slippery company man is practically a carbon copy of the character played by Paul Reiser in the earlier movie. As with most of Macdonald’s January 2015 pg 86