A taut Naval thriller starring Tom Hanks, Greyhound is lean, mean and a machine, 90 minutes of streamlined action and suspense. Or as my wife described it, “meh.”

Whereas she was looking for character development and more portrayal of life at sea, I was more than content with what Hanks, who wrote the film, and director Aaron Schneider have a concocted: a straightforward, fat-free demonstration of naval battle that rarely pauses for reprieve.

Other than Hanks, none of the other sailors are given an ounce of back story or depth. The villain is merely a voice who howls like a wolf over the radio. The story, simple: out of air support range in the middle of the Atlantic, four warships must defend a fleet of supply ships from a pack of U-boats over the span of three days.

Hanks spends much of his 90 minutes shouting orders that won’t make a ton of sense to layman, though you can generally understand when he’s ordering his ship to turn left or right or avoid a torpedo. The movie is efficiently written, but deep, soulful war drama this is not.

But it really doesn’t matter (never mind what my wife says). Schneider has crafted a suspenseful and tightly told film that essentially serves as one long action scene. Safety is no where to be seen, and as such Greyhound keeps you on the edge of your seat. When the ship lists to one side, you list with it. When a torpedo scrapes along the starboard hull, you feel it across your skin. When rounds are bouncing off the deck, you duck.

Greyhound may be no match for bigger war movies such as Dunkirk or Saving Private Ryan, but it’s easily one of the most gripping movies of the year so far.

My wife would argue it’s MERELY “a movie that came out this year.” Then again, she doesn’t like her action served cold and water soaked.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.