**Spoiler Alert**
Director: Craig Gillespie/Starring: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Eric Bana, Ben Foster and Holliday Grainger
Based on the book: The Finest Hours: The True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue, director Craig Gillespie's film tells the story of a T-2 oil tanker that literally split in half during a particularly savage sea storm in the Atlantic, which prompted a harrowing sea rescue. Braving terrifying, towering waves, the Coast Guard's rescue operation stands as one of the more amazing feats in American maritime history.
Having stated that, one might expect a movie depicting something so mind-boggling to be sufficiently nail-biting. Unfortunately, Gillespie's film falls well short of translating the story's more harrowing aspects. We're left instead with a technically accomplished action flick that would have been better off being projected from a plasma display than a movie projector. What was most likely a life-altering experience for all involved plays like a pedestrian sea disaster on-screen. One might find the story interesting and the visual effects impressive but if you're like me, you might also become drowsy; even during some of the film's climactic sequences.
The events depicted in the film took place off the coast of Massachusetts, early 1950s'. During said snow storm, the aforementioned tanker encountered violent, colossal waves. The tanker crew, led by Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck), watch nervously as the welded seam of the hull threatens to crack with the ship's every crashing descent from the mighty waves. When the seams does give, a powerful blast of water penetrates the interior, knocking crew-members against the bulkhead. Unthinkably worse, the ship actually splits in two which one crew-member discovers to his horror. While one half the ship sinks beneath the angry waves, Sybert and the remaining crew struggle to keep their half afloat. While the ship threatens to drift, sink or capsize, Sybert realizes their only hope is to steer what remains of the vessel onto a shoal, thus stabilizing it until help arrives.
Meanwhile, a Coast Guard crewman named Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) undertakes a dangerous and ill-advised mission to rescue the survivors of the tanker crew; well aware of the mission's slim chances for success. He and his small crew are nevertheless brave, knowing their small, Coast Guard boat must negotiate the roiling sea. Adding a wrinkle to Bernie's efforts is his fiancee Miriam (Holliday Grainger), who waits anxiously for him to return.
The story draws a parallel between the two crew chiefs as both Sybert and Bernie are burdened by the need to prove themselves as able leaders and earn their respective crews respect.
In an attempt to make the film more female friendly, the action is frequently interrupted to show us Miriam's anguish, as she clings desperately to the hope of her fiance's return.
The action is divided evenly between Sybert's attempt to ground the ship and Bernie's crazy brave effort to find the survivors, which seems hopeless in the unforgiving tempest.
Both narrative threads provide some minor thrills--accent on minor. The visual effects are effective enough to give a landlubber like myself an idea of what violent sea really means but the action didn't make me squirm. One might say; hey, cool CGI, but shouldn't this be more exciting? Knowing the story is based on fact was a sure tell that all would work out for everyone, which robbed the film of tension crucial to the narrative.
As mentioned earlier, I couldn't help but think the movie might be an okay late night, channel surfing stop but on a movie screen, it just seems several sizes too big.
The characters also fail to register as real people; they're more realized personality types. Eric Bana, Affleck and Pine aren't given much to interpret, character-wise. The same can be said for British actress Holliday Grainger; whose performance consists almost solely of teary-eyed stares into the oceanic horizon. Her character is really the producer's carrot to lure women into theater seats.
Craig Gillespie has done better work; the odd Lars and the Real Girl and the light and whimsical The Million Dollar Arm demonstrate his quirkier, more humorous trademark style. This film seems all wrong for him. This stuff is the domain of a seasoned hack like Michael Bay.
The men who lived through the horrific ordeal were undeniably at their finest. If only the filmmakers could claim the same. A better title for the film might have been; A Passable Two Hours.
