THE FINEST HOURS:
IT’S NO TITANIC OR PERFECT STORM
BUT IT DELIVERS ENOUGH IMPRESSIVE SPECIAL EFFECTS, GRIPPING THRILLS, EMOTION,
AND DECENT CASTING TO MAKE GOOD POPCORN FUN!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
DISNEY
A
near impossible rescue is about to begin in Disney’s
The Finest Hours
Director Craig Gillepse (Lars and the Real Girl, Fright Night (2011), Million Dollar Arm) and starring Chris
Pine (Star Trek franchise, Rise of the Guardians) comes a rescue
drama based on the true events of the 1952 United States Coast Guard rescue of
the SS Pendleton, The Finest Hours,
featuring Pine as US Coast Guardsman, Bernie Webber, the man who managed to
pull off the US Coast Guard’s most daring sea rescue ever. Surprisingly,
besides Saving Mr. Banks, this is
probably one of the most grown-up Disney
films the studio has ever released, I know they’ve done PG-13 rated movies
before those two films and granted it’s not heavily graphic with its intense
themes, not to mention they’ve done drama films many times before, dating back
to Remember the Titans, but while
watching the movie, none of it screamed Disney
to me.
It didn’t feel like a corporate
monster like Pirates of the Caribbean
or Frozen or a “Disneyfied” take on a true story like Cool Runnings or some of their other films based on true stories,
this is the kind of movie I’d assume they would release under their Touchstone banner, which is the more
adult oriented and darker half of Disney.
The movie was an intense, visually impressive, and more mature spectacle that
doesn’t rely on Disney gimmicks, it
actually reminds me a lot of films like Titanic
or The Perfect Storm.
The film follows First Class US Coast
Guardsman, Bernie Webber (Pine) of Boatswain’s Mate and his crew aboard the SS
Pendleton tanker in 1952, when a massive storm of winter waves and winds break
the ship in half, leaving the crew lost at sea, Bernie and the crew of the
CG500 life boat and USCGC Yakutat surfboat make it their mission to fight their
way through the storm to save the Pendleton’s crew before it sinks.
The movie also stars Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James By the
Coward Robert Ford, Gone Baby Gone,
Out of the Furnace) as Ray Sybert, Ben
Foster (X-Men 3: The Last Stand, 3:10 the Yuma, Lone Survivor) as Seaman Richard Livesey, Holliday Grainger (Bonnie & Clyde, Anna Karenina, Cinderella
(2015)) as Miriam Webber, John Ortiz (American
Gangster, Public Enemies, Fast & Furious 6) as Seaman Wallace
Quirey, and Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down,
Star Trek (2009), Hanna) as Chief Warrant Officer Daniel
Cluff.
Overall, The Finest Hours is an exciting rescue drama, lots of thrills at
sea, impressive special effects, emotion, and decent chemistry by its stars. Though
I still prefer Titanic and The Perfect Storm over this movie,
because they took their time to develop their characters, I didn’t think a lot
of the characters were developed that well in The Finest Hours, which is my main problem with the movie,
fortunately it didn’t bring the whole thing down.
What does save the movie is Chris
Pine as Bernie, not sure if it’s the most accurate representation of the real
man but Pine delivers a well developed character that you want to see rescue
his crewmates before they die. Besides Pine, Holliday Grainger is equally
engaging as Miriam, the love interest to Bernie who also supports him the best
she can, definitely a more serious performance than her stepsister performance
in last year’s Cinderella movie.
It doesn’t offer much new things to
the rescue drama genre, but if you’re a fan of films like Titanic, The Perfect Storm,
Cast Away, or some of those other
films, you might enjoy this fine. Don’t expect any Oscar worthy material with
this, but if you just want some big, visually impressive 3D popcorn fun, this
will be a fine 2 hours of your time.
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