Opening with a sepia-toned Disney logo over the sounds of
some vintage 50’s tunes, there’s no mistaking the tone director Craig
Gillespie’s is after with “The Finest Hours.” This is an earnest, old-fashioned
adventure story. Formulaic but remarkably effective, outside of the modern
special effects, the film could easily have been made in the era in which its
story takes place. It’s a period piece “The Perfect Storm” minus the crushing
sense of tragedy.
Based on
Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman’s book “The Finest Hours: The True Story
Of The U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue,” and adapted by screenwriters
Eric Johnson, Scott Silver, and Paul Tamasy, the film chronicles an incident
that took place in February 1952. Chris Pine is Bernie Webber, a rule-abiding
member of the Coast Guard stationed in Chatham, Massachusetts, called into
action when a particularly fierce nor’easter splits the Pendleton oil tanker in
two, leaving 32 survivors adrift in half a ship, without any commanding
officers or a radio to signal for help.
With most of
the Coast Guard’s men off assisting another distressed ship, Bernie’s
inexperienced commander (Eric Bana, sporting a Southern accent that’s truly a
thing to behold) orders him to attempt a daring rescue mission with only a
scrappy four-man crew (including a severely underused Ben Foster). It’s a race
against time as the Pendleton’s chief engineer, Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) uses
his ingenuity to keep the crew alive, deciding on a desperate course of action
that involves running the boat aground on a shoal in order to keep what remains
of the ship from sinking long enough for a rescue mission (which they’re unsure
is even coming) to reach them.
Any
traditional adventure tale wouldn’t be complete without a
element of romance, here fulfilled by Bernie’s courtship of the plucky Miriam
(a charismatic Holliday Grainger), with whom he’s been speaking over the phone
for months — they meet face-to-face for the first time as the film begins.
Naturally, they’ve just gotten engaged when Bernie sets off on a mission that
seems tantamount to suicide. The main action cuts between Bernie’s rescue
mission, the struggles of the Pendleton’s crew, and Miriam back on land,
barging into the commanding officer’s headquarters and demanding that he call
Bernie back.
“The Finest
Hours” is the type of movie where even if you haven’t seen any trailers or
aren’t familiar with the actual story that inspired it, you already know how
things are going to turn out — it is a Disney film after all. That the film is
able to generate as much suspense as it does is impressive in itself. The
scenes of Webber and his small crew piloting their tiny lifeboat out to
storm-ravaged sea and cresting seemingly impossible waves, are undeniably
thrilling. The computer generated effects are convincing, but do occasionally
fall into weak green screen territory.
Pine has
already demonstrated himself a reliable leading man, but it’s the magnetic
Affleck who really proves himself. He’s always a good actor, but here he makes
a case for himself as a bona fide movie star. It helps that men aren’t treated
as infallible superheroes. One of the best aspects of Pine’s performance is how
he allows us to see how often Webber is out-of-his-mind terrified, making his
bravery all the more admirable. The performances are able to overcome some of
the more clunky narrative devices: Webber’s strict adherence to regulations
seems manufactured only so that at a key moment he can chuck the rules aside
while in the line of duty. There’s also some backstory about how Webber was
unable to save the men on his last rescue mission, but for some reason that
story is told to us repeatedly instead of being shown, so it never has the
chance to truly resonant in any way that sticks.
The recent film
“In the Heart of the Sea” was also an old-fashioned seafaring epic at heart,
but it attempted to spice things up with modern camera techniques, which only
highlighted the creaky storytelling. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe uses
the epic camera moves sparingly; the moment when a Pendleton crew member first
discovers that half the ship he’s on has been ripped away is a truly terrifying
sight.
An old-school
throwback, “The Finest Hours” succeeds in its minor aspirations as a
well-crafted, solidly entertaining adventure, infused with the spirit of the 1950’s.
It’s not likely to stand the test of time, but for a January or early-February
deadzone release, it’s practically a miracle it’s as good as it is.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2016.
