The Vault
PARAMOUNTRe-invention, whether it’s that of a personality or an acting style, is often essential. Freddie Highmore has hit a period of his career where action films are open to him. The Vault is his first gun-toting offering, a heist action-thriller helmed by director, Jaume Balagueró of Rec-directing fame. With such an overabundance of bank-robbing thrillers in these past few years, The Vault must do something, anything, to set itself out as a unique and convincing vehicle for Highmore and hopeful supporting actors, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey and Sam Riley. As this trio venture into a predictable vehicle of commonplace-set pieces and gritty dialogue, it is what this cast and crew do with The Vault that will set it apart.
The Vault opens with scuba divers clearing muck off old, lost relics. That is very much what The Vault itself feels like. It has assembled old tropes of the genre and attempted to give them that squeaky clean desirability that hasn’t been felt since the glory days of its box office dependability. James (Riley) and Walter (Liam Cunningham) are hardened adventurers, searching for objects of the past that surely belong in a museum. They are pushed up against the wall by the Spanish government, their items confiscated to an underground bank, and are rather set on getting these relics of the sea back into their possession. That is, in effect, all the set-up one would need to make The Vault work, and work it does.
It is what it is, and It follows its brisk introductions to this soon-to-be ragtag group with all the bells and whistles necessary for the action genre. There is comfort in its complacency, but some stronger moments here or there could have produced a much greater film. Its script in particular requires work. For all the strong work offered by Highmore and company, their delivery of this forgettable, underwhelming dialogue is noticeably poor. The Vault is full of silly, small issues. When your leading, novice heister is searching the ‘most secure vault in the world’ on the internet, then it is a sign these creatives have no way of displaying his amateur nature in writing beyond the basics. While this issue within the writing can be masqueraded by a variety of shots and camera work, Balagueró does not fancy his chances in offering up anything other than the usual establishing shots, drone pans and shaking zooms from the inside of cars.
Whilst not entirely defying the stereotypes the genre has built up over the past four decades, The Vault works well enough within that system. Riley and Highmore share amicable enough scenes with one another, and The Vault as a whole will stagger on with its simple, integral strengths. Under the guise of a decade-old World Cup, ancient and stagnant characters follow the themes and tropes carved out all those years ago. For a film so set on pushing forth as a convincing modern entry into the action flicks of today, The Vault is caught up in its past and shows no signs of shifting. Moments of tension are interspersed throughout, signalled more by their cursing and disgruntled leads than with actual action. It is the curse of telling and not showing, and as these treasure hunters are featured in more and more intricate escapades, the audience are left on the outside of it all, hearing of great moments rather than seeing them.