The Vault [Way Down] *** (2021,  Freddie Highmore, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Sam Riley, Liam Cunningham, Luis Tosar, Axel Stein, José Coronado, Famke Janssen) – Classic Movie Review 13,849

Freddie Highmore stars in the 2021 French-Spanish heist action thriller film The Vault [Way Down] as a genius engineering graduate recruited to help a small team breach the vault that holds confiscated salvaged treasure inside the Bank of Spain.

Freddie Highmore stars in the 2021 French-Spanish heist action thriller film The Vault [Way Down] as a genius Cambridge engineering graduate who is recruited by a treasure-hunter mastermind (Liam Cunningham) to join his small team in relieving some of the special contents of the Madrid Bank of Spain’s 100 per cent secure safe. Can he find a way in? And, what’s more, a way out? The odds are hugely stacked against him, so the answer must be yes, but just exactly how?

Greedy grizzled Walter Moreland (Liam Cunningham) runs a salvaging company that had recovered The Treasure of Guadalupe, but it was seized by the Spanish government and he wants it back.

Director Jaume Balagueró’s The Vault, in which the Bank of Spain earns itself a heist, is preposterous and overblown but well done, engrossing, pretty stylish and quite fun all the way for its busy two hours. It’s very slick and even quite spectacular and thrilling in places, though that rather does spoil any sense of reality it would have. Best just to see it as an Ocean’s-style campy caper, and then it’s hunky dory. Are we supposed to believe a word of it? I hope not. There is way more CGI than needed, so there is always an impression that it’s only a movie. A bit of grit and noir would have been good.

None of the acting is particularly special, but Highmore is quite good as engineering graduate Thom Johnson, quirkily appealing. Sam Riley as former MI6 agent James, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey as con artist Lorraine, Liam Cunningham as salvaging company owner Walter Moreland, Luis Tosar as logistics expert Simón and Axel Stein as computer hacker Klaus are all fine and likeable enough, bringing grumpy gravitas, but a bit of sarcastic twinkle would be more entertaining. Boyish Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (Spanish, but playing Italian) is lightweight as the heroine, but she does put her offbeat mark on it.

José Coronado as the head of security of Bank of Spain and Emilio Gutiérrez Caba as the Bank of Spain chairman both have an exuberant good time as the team’s Spanish opposition (speaking Spanish too), though Famke Janssen is wasted as the enigmatic English woman Margaret.

Released: 2021-03-26

Production: Telecinco Cinema, Think Studio, Sony Pictures International Productions.

The film did well to gross $6.9 million in Spain, but it grossed only a total of $9 million worldwide against a budget of €15 million.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,849

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