Cargo is a 2019 drama about a Bahamian fisherman with a gambling addiction in Nassau who takes a job smuggling Haitians to Florida in a desperate ploy to support his family.
Warm water. Sunny skies. Sandy beaches, Tropical paradise. That’s pretty much what most of us think of when it comes to places like the Bahamas, with Hollywood perpetuating the image with all kinds of island retreat movies that feature the glamorous on vacation. Naturally, for those especially who live there, it’s an entirely different thing, where making your way in this life is as much a challenge as anywhere. This is where writer and director Kareem Mortimer sets his latest film Cargo, dropping us into a familiar story in an unfamiliar land.
Kevin Pinder (Warren Brown) needs money. Business isn’t good. He’s behind on mortgages for his house, and he can’t afford the high tuition on his son’s private school. More so, he’s got a gambling problem where he loses money every time he’s sure he’ll hit it big. He is an American living in the Bahamas as a fisherman, his wife Berneice (Persia White) at her wit’s end caring for his dementia-riddled mother who lives with them. When opportunity does finally come, it’s desperation that has him deciding to partner with a man who connects him with a human smuggling operation and a fate that leads him into the abyss.
The smartest thing about Cargo is its point of view, leaving the ‘paradise’ out of what we see, even as all the island markers make their appearance. This is a story more about the consequences of poor choices rather than the place where it happens, even as that place becomes central to a potential way out (or farther in). Mortimer focuses on the basic components of Kevin’s dilemma, not getting too deeply immersed in his own backstory, which leaves him more a tentpole in the plot than the whole show, but there’s enough to him that at least gives him some presence in the disturbing outcome.
As the money comes in from his illegal and dangerous side venture, we initially see the benefits of course, the story bound to a structure that must see one rise before they fall. Mortimer runs this along two other women, an illegal immigrant Jamaican housemaid he hires named Mona (Sky Nicole Grey) and a Haitian waitress (Gessica Geneus), with whom he begins an affair. These help a bit in illustrating the paths of some of the people he thinks he’s helping, their small world’s colliding because of their connection to Kevin.
Cargo runs long and slow at times, the leisurely and languid score not giving the film all that much momentum while Mortimer lingers on moments well after they’ve served their purpose, with some feeling like they don’t always give shape to the story as well as they should. We’re meant to understand what drives Kevin and his need to pay for his son’s schooling, but the relationship between father and son is barely explored.
It’s not until the third act when the expected turn comes where Kevin, who is never really seen in the most agreeable light, finds himself in some serious trouble and the film gets hold of its story. Kevin is forced to make some increasingly bad choices as the price for these decisions escalates.
Cargo is an earnest effort that at least puts us up close to a very real problem, giving some humanity to the genuine trauma of a people struggling to find their way. While it might not have the energy to keep that message sustained for the length it runs, there’s no denying the need for exposure. Recommended.