Sacrifice follows the attendees at an environmental conference/benefit in Greece, who seem more like the guests at an A-list Hollywood party than a serious intellectual summit. I enjoyed the initial rhetoric of this film’s satire on major world powers faking their good deeds. For one, there is actor Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), the oblivious star of numerous successful action movies, who’s now undergoing an existential crisis. He hopes to deliver a rousing speech demanding a real response to climate change, and to reset his brand in the process.
Enter Braken, a fusion of your least favourite billionaires, who is present to muster support for a highly questionable deep-sea mining effort targeting essential minerals. Complicating their efforts is Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy), the leader of a doomsday eco-cult. She and her acolytes are convinced the only way to prevent the catastrophic, world-ending eruption of the huge volcano burbling off the coast is to offer up suitably famous sacrifices.
“Sacrifice’s main strength was the camera work and the cinematography, with director Romain Gavras’ precise eye to shoot in Greece and Bulgaria.”
Sacrifice’s main strength was the camera work and the cinematography, with director Romain Gavras’ precise eye to shoot in Greece and Bulgaria. Cinematographer Matias Boucard nailed every shot of this real-life semi-active volcano in Santorini, Greece. Most likely, the VFX team played up the magma bubbling and splashing in the film. But, holy moly, this volcano felt real. The thunderous sound design made it sound and feel like a nature documentary crew capturing a real-life volcano about to erupt and the visuals sold it even more.
Aside from the intimidating volcano, the setting of the charity event was held in a marble white cave or chasm. Its pompous guests assumed they were too important for something bad to happen in this ridiculous spot that looked like a place where dead bodies get dumped. Sacrifice’s party setting reminded me of The Menu’s location, where the restaurant appeared obscenely expensive to build on a remote island. Funnily enough, that movie also starred Taylor-Joy.
This film’s second good choice was in its actors and the parts they got to play. Evans played the perfect part of an ignorant, egotistical actor who took any chance to take the spotlight—an absolute egomaniac. His chemistry with Taylor-Joy was more cute and endearing than anything more dirty. Jade Croot killed her role as a creepy young Nordic kid. Salma Hayek acted her butt off for what little scenes she had. The most out-of-place scene in the movie included a singing number for her. It was funny, but came out of left field.
Sacrifice’s storytelling started to crumble around the halfway mark, making me want to throw myself into the volcano. The journey to the volcano felt like I was watching Frodo and Sam travel from The Shire to Mount Doom at 0.25x speed. The moment a new character was introduced halfway, I wanted the torture to end. Or rather, I wanted to see more nature shots than witness the rest of this volcanic journey.
The ending landed somewhere along the lines of The Cabin at the End of the World because I was left not knowing what to really believe—maybe slightly less confused. With what occurred in the second half, the runtime could have been cut down by about five minutes, and I would have found the slogging moments less painful to get through. The main issue with the movie’s story structure and magical charm in its first act was its ability to pit modernism against mysticism and tribalism.
Somewhere between the second and third act, a hallucination sequence starts. Again, it was cool to see the costume and set designers go crazy. However, the purpose it served for this film and the messaging almost seemed counterintuitive. Sacrifice, as a film, looked to be overspending on materials and natural resources to bring this dream sequence to life—going against the counterculture themes baked into this story.
“Sacrifice lost its way partway through, stumbling into its own volcanic magma by the time the credits rolled.”
The last saving grace of Sacrifice was its score. I never heard of Gener8ion’s music or compositions, but this film’s score is what kept me awake and interested to keep going to the end. The throat singing and pounding drums thrummed hard enough to pace up the story, despite it moving at a snail’s pace.
Sacrifice lost its way partway through, stumbling into its own volcanic magma by the time the credits rolled. From its messy third act to the story not being brave enough to tackle the issues it presumes to be mocking, this film lacked execution to the final moments. The beginning and premise were so strong and could have been great, but it lost its way. This is a TIFF movie I would recommend watching on the big screen for its jaw-dropping visuals, but as a story, you can wait to watch it on your 90-inch OLED TV screen back home.
