The Finest Hours

It’s amazing how a film’s quality can go from high, to low, in a series of moves akin to poor strategy on a chessboard.  Except in the case of The Finest Hours, the moves were so simple, that it was like trying to win at Connect Four without even attempting the diagonal route.

The quality starts off high, as the inspiring true story the film’s based on, is a story worth telling.  An account of the daring 1952 Coast Guard rescue attempt off the New England Seaboard, when an oil tanker was ripped in half during a blizzard.  Not only is it a good story, but it’s two of them.  The first being the rescue attempt, and the second being the men trying to extend their time above water on the destroyed tanker.  All the while, nature rages around them in a fury little live to see, once they’ve seen it.

So what was the first wrong move? One word…Disney.  Now I’m not suggesting that this film needed to have all of the sailors talk like a sailor, but it would’ve been nice if the film was backed by a studio that was less concerned with how great the storm looks (it looks spectacular), and more worried if the audience would like to get to know the men involved.  The only people that seem to care about the characters are the four gifted actors in the lead roles, who think they’re in a much better movie.

Chris Pine plays Bernie Webber, the Coast Guard member who captains the rescue mission.  He’s a good guy, and after two hours of watching him, that’s all I can tell you.  He’s the only main character with any kind of side story, as we watch him meet his future girlfriend (Holliday Grainger), and get engaged to her in a very bizarre and boring way.  It’s all done just to give the film someone to stand around and look worried on the shore while the heroes are out at sea.  The character is literally useless, as she doesn’t motivate anything that Webber does in the movie; she only exceeds at being annoying to Webber’s Officer, and driving her car into the snow like an idiot.  A brief appearance by a widow (Rachel Brosnahan of “House of Cards”) of a perished fisherman inspired more sympathy.

Pine is joined by Ben Foster, playing his first mate, and he has even less of a character, but like Pine, makes it work as best as he can.  Eric Bana, an actor that could be getting all the roles Tom Hardy is getting now a days, plays the commanding officer that orders the rescue mission.  He has a southern accent, and it’s implied that being from somewhere different is frowned upon, other than that, he’s given little to do.  Still, Bana has some good moments when he pauses before making difficult decisions that could cost lives.  He let’s us see the wheels in his head thinking and weighing the consequences.

The best performance in the film goes to Casey Affleck, who plays Ray Sybert, the most intelligent man on the doomed tanker.  There’s a weariness to his character that the film never explores, but Affleck makes sure to infuse his every moment on screen with it.  Other than that, the rest of the characters are cliches and the film is more concerned with how terrifying the storm looks, than how frightening it must of been to know that at any moment the ocean could take your life away.  Still, I’ll admit that the CGI storm is damn impressive, and for someone that hates the idea of being in a similar situation, it certainly reinforced my thinking.  It helped seeing it on a big screen with loud speakers to get the full effect, but every instance the film cut back to shore, it was time for another bathroom brake.

I wish the studio was more concerned with how such an incredible story could become the best possible film, instead of the most accessible family picture.   Ironic that a story about men at sea drowns whenever it’s on land.

Grade: C