Review: The Impossible

The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand from the point of view of a vacationing British family headed by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor.

 

Gruelling, extremely effective 2012 rendering of the real-life 2004 Boxing Day tsunami from director Juan Antonio Bayona (“The Orphanage”, “A Monster Calls”) and writer Sergio G. Sanchez (“The Orphanage”). It’s sometimes uncomfortable, unpleasant, and overall frighteningly convincing. This may not be a cinematic journey some of you wish to take, and I appreciate that. However, I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse the film of exploiting or wallowing in real-life misery. With one minor annoyance aside (I’ll get to that later), I found this film a compelling experience and very well-made. Bayona sets a scene of eerie, ominous, yet beautiful calm before the tsunami hits and the scenery just gets obliterated. You’ll be treated to some of the most harrowingly convincing disaster scenes in cinematic history. The only moment in the entire film where I felt like I was watching a movie was the strangely out-of-place cameo by Geraldine Chaplin. Otherwise, this one is damn close to docudrama.

 

It gets off and running pretty quickly and it takes mere minutes for you to become invested in this family, the performances from all of them seem real, the relationships authentic. In particular Naomi Watts gives quite possibly her best performance to date (and richly deserved her Oscar nomination), and Ewan McGregor is no slouch either. Watts particularly deserves credit though for going all-out here playing an extraordinary woman driven to save her children no matter what. Meanwhile, McGregor has an emotional breakdown scene that is truly and uncomfortably gut-wrenching, the actor letting it all out. A pre-“Spider Man” Tom Holland is absolutely terrific as the oldest, most resilient of the children, and isn’t remotely cutesy or cloying. He shows resilience and maturity beyond his years at times but not without also showing that this is still a child in a tough and sometimes rather awkward situation. We see this particularly in one scene where the kid happens to notice that his mum’s tit has popped out. I mean, she’s busy making sure they don’t frigging die, who cares about a wardrobe malfunction right? Kids see the world a bit differently, I guess. The one big flaw with the film is that the real-life characters have been unfortunately white-washed. The real-life family was Spanish, Watts and McGregor are English-Australian and Scottish respectively, and it’s very regrettable I must say that the change has been made. The real-life woman whom Watts plays apparently personally chose Watts for the role. It still bothers me.

 

If tears don’t well up in your eyes at least once during this gruelling experience, check your pulse. Well-acted, with devastatingly realistic depictions of a natural disaster. A very well-made picture.

 

Rating: B

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more