Monday, December 14, 2015

Movie Review #352: "In the Heart of the Sea" (2015)

Movie"In the Heart of the Sea"
Director: Ron Howard
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 2 hours, 1 minute
Image Source
Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson) tells author Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) of his stint on the whaling ship Essex and its run in with able giant sperm whale that left the crew stranded at sea.

The film "In the Heart of the Sea" is based on the book "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaling Ship Essex," which is an historical account of the true life story that was Herman Melville's inspiration for the book "Moby Dick." What a mouthful. Director Ron Howard tries to bring this sea-bound historical epic to the big screen and do it justice. The film, much like the book, is told from the account of Tom Nickerson, played in his older years very passionately by Brendan Gleeson and in his younger years by a very timid newcomer in Tom Holland. The bulk of the story takes place in the 1820's when the whaling industry was a big business and was the main source for heating oil. The Essex was a whaling ship with an inexperienced captain named George Pollard, played by Benjamin Walker, who earned his position by being born into the right family, and a temperamental first mate named Owen Chase, played by Chris Hemsworth, who earned everything he had in life and was only taking this first mate position under the promise he would receive his own command the voyage after the Essex. Chase and Pollard merely tolerated each other in the hopes they could achieve their 2,000 barrel goal of whale oil and return home in one piece with their crew. But alas, the search for whales led the ship further and further out to sea and to its eventual run-in with the massive sperm whale that inspired Moby Dick.

Being an ocean adventure epic, like the trailers promised, there are some beautiful camera shots and some nice cinematography in this film. Also, as many modern films go, though the movie's oceanic adventures are comprise almost entirely of CGI, from the whales and other sea life to most of the water itself, the CGI is implemented and executed very well, much better than we anticipated, even. These effects are solid, but as audience members, we have pretty much visually seen it all. Epic effects simply aren't enough to carry a film on its own anymore. What we really need and crave to balance out the CGI-fest are some strongly written characters being fueled by excellent performances by the actors. Unfortunately, the characters, the performances, and the writing here aren't all that compelling. The first half of the film is a bit slow to get started and it's mostly character building drama. This segues into long periods where nothing really happens but sailing as the action-packed sequences can be few and far between, though when they do happen, they are certainly fun and even a little thrilling to watch. No part of "In the Heart of the Sea" was bad by any means, but we just wanted more everything, from a better, more emotional story, and more impactful performances for a movie debuting this time of the year. We respect the physical toll this film took on the actors involved (most noticeable in "Thor" star Chris Hemsworth, who made a dramatic transformation) as they all dumped massive amounts of weight for the scenes where their characters are stranded at sea, but we saw this in last year's Christmas release "Unbroken," too.

In the end, "In the Heart of the Sea" lacked the emotional oomph we needed to have an powerful, poignant response and it certainly didn't do enough to set it apart from the other survival films, ocean voyage epics, or true story biopics in existence. Brendan Gleeson, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Holland do give good performances, but at the end of the day, it's just another movie that could have come out any other movie besides December. Ron Howard's direction doesn't particularly shine through, and if you weren't told this was directed by him, you might not even know it.

My Rating: 6.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 7/10
IMDB's Rating: ~7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: ~43%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?

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