In the Heart of
the Sea. Rated M (survival themes). 122 minutes. Directed by Ron Howard.
Screenplay by Charles Leavitt. Based on the book ‘In the Heart of the Sea: The
Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex’ by Nathaniel Philbrick.
When a director as
good as Howard sets sail for the high seas, we have an almost watertight
guarantee that gripping drama will ensue. After all, with A Beautiful Mind
(2001), he achieved what many considered highly improbable, by turning the
study of mathematics into an Oscar-winning masterpiece.
His Apollo 13
(1995), about the battle for unlikely survival aboard a severely damaged
spacecraft, remains an infinitely watchable film. And then there was the
fantastic Rush (2013), the director’s first outing with Heart of the Sea star
Chris Hemsworth, when the rivalry between Formula 1 champions James Hunt
(Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) resulted in one of the most
compelling films of that year.
If Heart of the
Sea fails to reach the heights of Howard’s previous adventures that have also
been based on true stories, it’s because the ‘survival at sea’ (or anywhere for
that matter) genre is packed with vastly superior films, of which Ridley
Scott’s White Squall (1996), Wolfgang Petersen’s The Perfect Storm (2000), and
Peter Weir’s Master and Commander (2003) are just three examples.
This is not to say
that the tale of the whalers aboard the ill-fated Essex, including First Mate Owen Chase
(Hemsworth), the privileged Captain Pollard (Benjamin Walker), and Second Mate,
Matthew Joy (Cillian Murphy), is not an interesting one. The problem lies in
the fact that with the exception of the brilliantly realised confrontations
with the massive ‘demon’ white whale, every other scene, circumstance and
conflict at sea and on land has a doom-laden sense of wearying familiarity – as
though we’ve seen and heard it all before.
This review was
commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.
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