[four-star-rating]Chris Evans, Casey Affleck, Holliday Grainger, Ben Foster, Eric Bana[/four-star-rating]
It is considered the US Coast Guard’s most daring rescue – a “suicide mission” to save nearly 30 men. A horrible winter storm was tearing up the Massachusetts coast, and a huge oil tanker had torn in half.
Disney does the Disney thing bringing this heroic story to life, adding neat-o 1950s art direction, a swell score, great visuals, action, romance and bravado. Sure, the ship runs into a few clichés, but it’s a sight better than most January releases.
I personally hate when good films like this get tossed into the storm of Oscar contenders and the crap Hollywood shoves off in the early year. The Finest Hours isn’t the absolute best film ever made, but it’s sure worth more than its release date.
Chris Pine is Bernie Webber, a taciturn Coastguardsman. In the winter of 1951/52, he chatted with a charming phone operator, Miriam, (Grainger) for months before he met her. Though they both are tough, she has more fire than Webber; he’s more steady. Just as she’s planning their future together, a giant February storm rises up, sending the Bernie and the Coast Guard into a scramble to save several imperiled ships.
One of those ships was the SS Pendleton, ripped in half and taking on water in the maelstrom. The person left in charge of the hobbled, sinking craft is engineer Ray Sybert (Affleck), another quiet, steady man.
That is one message of The Finest Hours. Against the unpredictable sea, both Webber and Sybert were steadfast and brave. They did their duty despite the threats of death. They calmly developed wild and inventive options. In short, they persevered. Both Pine and Affleck do a beautiful job of bringing these levelheaded, soft-spoken men to life.
The rest of the cast is an old-fashioned pastiche of 1950s films. Their acting, the cinematography, the costuming, and the set dressing all work together to make for a film that could seem classic but staid. In fact, the romance and many of the quieter scenes are a bit stuffy and dusty, and they often literally interrupt the action.
What saves The Finest Hours are the thrilling shots at sea – stunning, white-knuckle visuals.
Director Craig Gillespie might seem an odd choice; he directed Lars and the Real Girl, the terrible Mr. Woodcock, and the reboot of Fright Night. However, Gillespie also directed Million-Dollar Arm for Disney – a solid if unsurprising sports film that fit well into the Mouse’s brand. The Finest Hours fits, too, but it’s just more exciting and inspiring. Million-Dollar Arm was written by director/writer Tom McCarthy (nominated all over this year for Spotlight). The team that scripted The Fighter wrote The Finest Hours. If Disney sticks with Gillespie and keeps giving him good writers, they have a possible Oscar powerhouse.
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At our screening of The Finest Hours, several Coast Guard members were honored. They and others – firefighters, EMTs, and other safety workers – don’t do their jobs and risks their lives for the glory. Like Bernie Webber, they do it because it’s the right thing to do. They don’t expect great films like The Finest Hours. This movie is just one more way we all benefit from their work.
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