"Greenland" a harrowing mid-budget survival/disaster flick

Greenland (2020)

For once, Gerard Butler doesn’t have to save the world from a geostorm, stop terrorists before Presidents Aaron Eckhart and/or Morgan Freeman fall, or show Katherine Heigl how to orgasm. He’s more of an everyman than unstoppable hero in "Greenland," his second time working with director Ric Roman Waugh (2019’s stupidly entertaining “Angel Has Fallen”), which is a little less stupid and a little more entertaining. As a mid-budget distraction in the thick of awards season, it does exactly what it needs to do. What initially seems destined to be a guilty-pleasure disaster flick in line with Roland Emmerich's school of more-ridiculous-means-more-fun filmmaking, “Greenland” is actually well-made and genuinely harrowing.

Keeping his Scottish accent intact, Gerard Butler plays structural architect John Garrity, who’s living in Atlanta and recently separated from his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin). They have a 7-year-old son, Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd), who’s about to celebrate his birthday with his parents and some neighbor friends. Meanwhile, the news on TV and the radio is covering an interstellar comet named Clarke that’s schedule to burn in the sky like a pretty sight for the world to see. When John and Nathan head to the grocery store for some last-minute items, John receives a presidential alert on his phone and then a call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that he ignores. Once the fragment of the comet enters the atmosphere and causes a shock wave for John, his family, and friends to experience, the news alerts that the comet has devastated central Florida. As it turns out, John and his family have been randomly selected by the government for shelter, so they hit the road to board one of many planes at a military base. Only more complications can ensue amidst this extinction-level event, and any guesses on where the safety bunker is located in a movie titled “Greenland”?

What is most surprising about “Greenland” is that director Ric Roman Waugh and screenwriter Chris Sparling (2018’s “Down a Dark Hall”) are less interested in the big, overblown spectacle of putting humankind in danger. The filmmakers find danger in other ways that eventually lead to kinetically staged close-calls with molten debris showering from the sky, forcing the characters to dodge instant death in a pick-up truck. As soon as it’s established that Nathan is diabetic, one knows the son’s need for insulin will figure in later. The script actually uses Nathan’s diabetes less as a cheap child-in-peril trope than another complication to separate the family, as no one with a health condition can board for shelter. Adding to the stress of John getting separated from Allison (and not just in the marital sense) and Nathan, both of them encounter other people who may be out for self-interest when it comes to the “selected” wristbands the family is given. Both journeys are fraught with tension and prove that man is worse than nature.

In the pantheon of Gerard Butler roles, family man John Garrity is a solid fit for the star. Butler is sympathetic as John, and perhaps the reason for John’s separation with Allison becoming clear so very late in the film is to keep the viewer’s rooting interest. Morena Baccarin (2018’s “Deadpool 2”) is also emotionally available, particularly when she thinks all is lost, and makes Allison smarter than a mere damsel-in-distress in her decision-making. There’s also a capable supporting cast for character actors to play both sides of the good/bad coin, including Hope Davis and David Denman, as a seemingly helpful couple; Merrin Dungey, as a sympathetic-to-a-point military officer; and the always-reliable Scott Glenn showing up as Allison’s father, who can be gruff but delivers some of the film’s more moving moments, knowing that they could be his last. Of course, a Gerard Butler vehicle is not going to not let the Garrity clan make it. However, the film does set up for a bleaker ending that could have possibly knocked the wind out of audiences (and probably dissatisfied them). The actual finale feels a little cowardly in that respect, but only because the emotional investment with the Garrity family is actually there. Ultimately, “Greenland” won’t set the world on fire, but it's involving and better than it needs to be as a more-serious alternative to your average “disastravaganza.”

Grade: B -

STX Entertainment is releasing “Greenland” (119 min.) on demand on December 18, 2020.