Movie Breakdown: The Vault
Pre-Screening Stance:
You know, I don’t believe I’ve seen anything that Freddie Highmore has been in (it’s largely been TV shows – The Good Doctor, Bates Motel) since he was on the precipice of exiting marketable kid status. It’ll be good to catch up with him, I guess? Anyhow, I like heist films and that’s what The Vault is, so I’m down to give it a go.
Post-Screening Ramble:
Near the start of this film, the main character, Thom (Freddie Highmore), very clearly notes that he’s no Danny Ocean, and that ends up being a pretty accurate description for The Vault. It is indeed no Ocean’s Eleven – it’s not near as clever, or charming, or engaging, but it’s also not terrible. The setup is that an intrepid fella named Walter (Liam Cunningham) wants a treasure map that’s being housed in a special vault that has never been cracked. He then, of course, assembles a team of miscreants and … Thom, a young, unassuming, innocent and talented engineer. Or well, at least it’s assumed he’s talented, as you’re never really shown just how smart he is, nor are you ever clued in as to how Walter decided this barely-out-of-college dude – a totally unproven person – could crack something that has never been cracked. In any case, Thom joins up and that gets the film fully underway.
I think if The Vault had been shorter – it’s just about two hours long – its issues wouldn’t have stood out so much. After all, its central puzzle is a fun one – Thom has to figure out how to break into an old, Indiana Jones-like vault (it floods with water if triggered). Unfortunately though, its characters are far too cookie cutter and the film has a real lack of tension, so as it crawls along, it just loses all momentum. Also, it really doesn’t help that Highmore’s approach to Thom is to sport a blank face in every single scene, and it really, really doesn’t help that director Jaume Balaguero just lets the camera linger on such an expression-less canvas.
The Vault has a few things that hit, but it’s largely full of misses. If you just want to see something new, you could do worse, but definitely don’t go into this one expecting much. The movie will be in select theaters and on VOD this Friday, March 26.
One Last Thought:
Whenever I think of Sam Riley, I immediately picture the one from Control (the 2007 film about Ian Curtis of Joy Division), so his gruff and badass-ish character in this didn’t really work for me. On a related note, why didn’t Riley have a big time career after Control?
