The Finest Hours is the third movie this season that shows off Hollywood’s fascination for the fury of the ocean, recreated in all its VFX enabled glory. And by my reckoning, it may be the finest of them all. Mind you, the surfing sequences in Point Break were intensely exciting and visually stunning and In the Heart of the Sea seemed to be having a whale of the time on the IMAX screen, but this simple, heavily old school film manages something that neither of those films did - it builds on a series of disasters and still manages to have a happy ending.
Based on the true story of how a small coast guard boat captained by Bernie Weather, went through the storm of a lifetime to save 32 sailors who had their oil tanker split in half by the sea, this film strikes that balance between static drama and dynamic visual action with finesse. Agreed, it does take some time to get off the ground, but you can’t fault the director for that little hit of indulgence, especially in a film where the detailing is tremendous.
On a day when even the fishermen believe it would be suicidal to venture into the choppy sea, Bernie and his raw four member crew give it a whirl. They head out because their station chief tells them to go looking for the oil tanker SS Pendleton, which broke in half, a little off the coast. What should have been the happiest day of Bernie’s life, as he psyched himself to tell the chief he intended to get married, turned out to be his finest hour. His fiance, the gutsy Miriam Pentinen, is emotional, angsty and hopeful at various points during the film, hoping that Bernie beats the odds. And those humongous waves.
In a lot of ways, The Finest Hours is a tribute to the better side of the indomitable human spirit. Of the beleaguered crew of an oil tanker, as they steer half a ship toward the coast in the hope of being saved. Of a town that hopes, prays and switches on car headlights to guide the boat toward land And of four young coast guards who sailed through waves that would have made Moby Dick quake. Visually, there are very few movies that can immerse you in the expanse of the ocean and not give you that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. The Finest Hours is one of them. The sound design is one of the best and the background score is subtle and restrained.
The ‘greatest rescue in the history of the US Coast Guard’ certainly makes for some riveting viewing. And with the right dose of drama and a cast that has Chris Pine, Casey Affleck and Eric Bana, there could have been that push to give this a look-back-from-the-future spin. Perhaps it’s just as well that Craig Gillespie resisted the temptation to tell this story in a series of flashbacks. That would have simply been too passe.