Starring: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Holliday Granger, John Ortiz, Eric Bana
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Runtime: 117 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2016
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This film tells the heroic story of the greatest small boat rescue in American Coast Guard history, carried out during near hurricane-force storms off the coast of Massachusetts in 1952. So, when the film opens with coast guard Bernie and Miriam’s first date in 1951, the audience is unsubtly being spoon-fed reasons to care if Bernie survives the later rescue or not. Their courtship is shown the utmost deference by the film, and yet the early stretches can’t help but suffer from their placement in front of the action we know is approaching. Chris Pine and Holiday Granger make for solid and likable leads, but their characters are written almost too smoothly – they lack edges and wrinkles, and are somewhat bland in their excellence.
So, the complication – in a monstrous tempest, the oil tanker SS Pendleton is split in two, with over 30 surviving crew members stranded on board the slowly sinking stern section. This scene, the first of several thrilling set pieces, is very confidently and powerfully constructed. Physical sets are seamlessly augmented to create an impressive recreation of the tanker, and the evidently CG ocean heaves with raw fury. The ship’s engineer, played with committed grace by Casey Affleck, becomes the de facto leader when he wisely extinguishes some crew members’ plans to escape on flimsy lifeboats. He rallies his comrades to try and run the ship aground, ensuring they maximise their time afloat while waiting to be rescued.
On shore, a different rescue is being coordinated when news arrives of the Pendleton’s fate. Commanding Officer Daniel Cluff – Eric Bana, perhaps unfairly relegated to human antagonist for our heroes – orders Bernie to take a crew with him to assist the stricken vessel. As the phrase ‘crossing the Bar’ is whispered in fearful tones (referring to a series of shoals between their port and destination), it is clear that this will be a nigh impossible and possibly suicidal undertaking. Nonetheless, Bernie sets out with three volunteers in tow.
What follows is by a clear margin the film’s calling card; a breathtaking, white-knuckle ride as Bernie steers his crew over ‘the Bar’, repeatedly swamped and completely submerged by colossal breakers. The visceral camera movement and Carter Burwell’s efficiently employed score combine to put the viewer right in the captain’s seat – don’t be surprised to find yourself holding your breath on occasion.
Back on dry land, Bernie’s now fiancé Miriam is causing a fuss at the station, refusing to obey Bernie’s superiors and demanding unsuccessfully that her beau be ordered to return. Sadly, this ‘plucky heroine’ subplot feels totally divorced from the real drama at sea, despite some nice moments between Miriam and the widow of a sailor Bernie was unable to save previously. Perhaps this segment was included by the team of screenwriters in an attempt to widen their previously male target audience, but its attempts to depict a kind of proto-second wave feminism feel far clumsier than anything set at sea.
As Bernie and Co. eventually locate the imperilled vessel and begin their still dangerous evacuation, the film’s adherence to an almost studio-era style of filmmaking becomes obvious. ‘The Finest Hours’ is exactly the kind of film an old studio head would have leapt at had they the technology at hand. It is unashamedly old-fashioned, and potential audiences should be warned not to expect anything out of left field. For better and worse, this is a film made to an age-old formula of heroism under pressure, and traditional audiences will enjoy its competent true-life thrills.
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