Director: Craig Gillespie
Cast: Chris Pine, Holliday Grainger, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Eric Bana, Kyle Gallner, Graham McTavish, Rachel Brosnahan, John Magaro, Benjamin Koldyke, Abraham Benrubi, Josh Stewart, Keiynan Lonsdale, John Ortiz, Beau Knapp
Rating: C+
The Finest Hours, directed by Craig Gillespie, tells a harrowing tale of one of the most daring sea rescues ever recorded by the U.S. Coast Guard. The story opens on February 18, 1952 when a massive storm hit New England. The SS Pendleton, a T-2 oil tanker on its way to Boston, get caught in the violent weather. With major damage to the ship’s hull, the SS Pendleton is literally ripped in half. Only the back half of the ship remains afloat and with water splurging into the engines, the ship and its remaining crew of about 32 men is sure to sink. In this nature vs. man drama there is a race against time to save the oil tanker’s crew from death.
Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck), the chief engineer who knows every inch of the tanker and can practically feel its heartbeat, finds himself thrown in charge of motivating a not so willing crew to stay on the ship and fight for survival. It is all hands on deck as Ray figures out a way to keep the boat afloat and ground it until help can arrive. The task of getting the badly damaged vessel moving is not an easy one but somehow Ray and his crewmen become a well working team as they shout orders and instructions back and forth at each other to make a system work with what little time they have left.
Meanwhile back on shore, the Coast Guard station in Chatham, Massachusetts becomes aware of the stranded ship. Strangely enough, another oil tanker is also stranded at sea and all resources are being used to save that ship. Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana) has no choice but to risk sending a rescue party out on a 36 foot badly equipped wooden boat. Daniel orders Captain Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) to assemble some men and head out into the rough seas in an attempt to save those left on the SS Pendleton. Bernie, a seasoned sailor, enlists the help of Richard Livesey (Ben Foster), Andy Fitzgerald (Kyle Gallner) and Ervin Maske (John Magaro). With a boat that has a badly fitted engine and little to no navigation system, the four brave souls set out on a dangerous and nearly impossible rescue mission.
The Finest Hours opens with the courtship between Bernie and Miriam (Holliday Grainger), with the intention to add some emotional depth to the film should Bernie not make it back alive. All the romance storyline does is delay the movie from really getting started. As the storm moves in, the drama finally gets going. The camera works swiftly and effectively swooping in and out of ship corridors to give audiences the sense of urgency that the shipmates are experiencing as they frantically try to keep the steal barge from sinking. CGI effects capture the intimidating force and power of the ocean (with some very impressive scenes of escaping monstrous waves) and mankind’s quest to outsmart one of nature’s mysteries.
There is plenty of nautical mumbo jumbo in the dialogue to help us understand what needs to be done along with stereotypical characters that make up the crew to drive some affection from the audiences for the more likable cast. Casey Affleck and Chris Pine do a pretty good job playing roles of men who accidentally become heroes. Both actors manage to portray stoic, strong, compassionate real life men whose determination led to an amazing outcome to what could have been a very tragic ending.
There are moments in the film that feel very cliche, especially when it comes to romance between Bernie and Miriam, which just doesn’t seem to work in the production. The script is unable to seamlessly weave the love story in with so many characters and action sequences. Some of the film seems very unbelievable. For instance, shouldn’t people with little to no protection against freezing wind and rain be shivering to death? When a ship is being flooded with ice cold water, wouldn’t one assume that walking through the water could potentially cause frost bite? Nobody in the midst of this wet winter disaster ever looks like they are cold – at least not until the very end when Bernie’s hand starts to shake, but we never know if he is shaking from the cold or just from nerves.
The movie works best when no one is talking and it just focuses on the action and the perilous and intense rescue that most would deem impossible to complete. The lack of direction and coherency in this real life disaster tale winds up washing up on shore with little to remember once it’s over.
