Martin Freeman Carries the Heavy 'Cargo'

Cargo is an Australian post-apocalyptic thriller film based on the short film of the same name.  In it, the world has been devastated by a pandemic which turns people into zombies 48 hours after getting infected.  The story follows Andy Rose (Martin Freeman), an infected father traveling through “the bush” with his baby daughter, desperately looking for a safe place for her before he succumbs to the virus.

I prefer my Australian zombie movies to be more like Wyrmwood, but Cargo has much heart that it made me like it.  Though it has scares, grossness, and violence – typical elements of a zombie film – it’s really more of a drama rather than a thriller, and has beats of movies like A Quiet Place and The Road.  As a zombie film, I find it fresher and heavier than The Cured (a zombie film I saw earlier) despite being more traditional and less complex (though it has some obvious social commentary in there as well).

Martin Freeman carries this movie.  It could have easily become boring, but Freeman’s magnificently believable and heart-breaking performance completely powers a compelling character-driven narrative.  You would really get to care and root for his character, hoping he would overcome his desperate situation somehow.

In the end, Cargo will probably not go down as one of this year’s best films.  But it should leave a mark; it’s pretty distressing – thought not necessarily in the manner you may think from a zombie film.