The Finest Hours (2016)
When I accuse
Star Trek Beyond of being screeching and unconcerned with life to the point of vulgarity (i.e., Kirk quipping about how "fun" being a captain immediately after what must be the deaths of
many of his crew members), this is the sort of contrasting example I have in mind.
The Finest Hours is old-fashioned, big-hearted, and, yes, a bit corny. But it's also a thrilling adventure without a single firearm discharge or even a villain per se, just scared, smart, brave men. Which, much like
In the Heart of the Sea, another recent major New England nautical box office bomb, has led to some sniffy reviews about how unsophisticated and old-fashioned it all is. Which seems to me like going to a church service and complaining about all the theology - some critics think themselves too clever to appreciate a simple story about honor and determination.
Then there are the reviews that complain about the CG looking "fake"... but most of the movie takes place at night, so the
realistic course would have been to torture the audience with dim and indistinct visuals. Yes, the cold and hypothermia could have been better emphasized, and the money spent on the 3D presentation (which, for a movie this dark and dim: no, thanks) could have been spent on visible breath, but that's hardly a reason to condemn the whole movie.
Great perfs by Chris Pine and Casey Affleck. I really like
Mick Lasalle's discussion of the former: "He’s an arresting character — shy and diffident, and yet with a rare decisiveness and certainty in his own judgment. Over the course of the film, the audience can’t help circling back to Bernie and pondering him, wondering if the thing that allowed him to be heroic was simplicity — a sort of “This is what’s right, so this is what I’m doing” — or moral profundity. Both possibilities are in play in Chris Pine’s performance."
It's no classic of cinema, but
The Finest Hours is a gripping and moving tribute to an extraordinary real-life ocean rescue of tremendous honor and courage, and the apparent lack of a viable market niche for such movies is a shame. But here's to Disney for having made it at all.
A-
(currently on Netflix streaming!)
PS. This movie is rated PG-13, the same rating as
The Expendables 3,
Star Trek Beyond, and
Suicide Squad, despite being
far more appropriate for young children, what with its complete lack of violence and the glorification thereof. How
this got a PG-13 when Disney's
Tomorrowland got a PG, despite its
start-to-finish violence, including a high school girl
smashing an android's head with a goddamn baseball bat onscreen, is inexplicable. Dear MPAA ratings board:
Go fuck yourselves.