Review: The Finest Hours (2016)

My ratingIMDbRotten Tomatoes
CriticsAudienceCriticsAudience
6/1058/1007.1/1059%71%
Numbers obtained from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes on January 30, 2016.

I always feel bad for a movie when the trailer is more exciting is than the film itself. You end up going to the theater with high expectations and get very disappointed when the product doesn’t live up to it and this is what happened to The Finest Hours.

Based on real events, it tells the story of a rescue mission in the East Coast in 1952 led by coast guard Bernie Webber (Chris Pine). During a terrible storm, an oil tanker was ripped in half, literally, and its 30 sailors had to find a way to survive while the rescue team was on its way.

The story is very interesting and the movie is well made, but it lacks intensity and the kind of emotion that one would expect from this genre. There were parts of it completely unnecessary, in my view, like when we see the same message being past from the sailor on the top of the ship to the one on the engine cabin. I understand that they were trying to show us how it really happens, but after the third time you hear the exact same line it gets a little boring.

I also felt that the cast didn’t transmit to the audience all the intensity that was necessary in those circumstances, which is a pity because it really is a beautiful story and is one worth telling. But maybe in a more exciting way.

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