Even the most unlikely of odds can be overcome amidst extreme peril in director Craig Gillespie’s “The Finest Hours,” a rescue operation, based on true events, that falters between two interlocking narratives.
Chris Pine portrays Bernie Webber, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard who, in 1952, led the rescue of the Pendleton, an oil tanker that broke in two during a storm.
Timothy Hogg
Bernie Webber (Pine) and his girlfriend, Miriam (Holliday Granger), are recently engaged. Just as Bernie tries to ask his station commander (Eric Bana) for permission to marry Miriam, a massive blizzard sweeps across New England.
During the storm an oil tanker — the Pendleton — is ripped in half by the waves, sinking the bow and leaving more than 30 sailors stranded on the stern.
Bernie and his crew are sent to aid the wreck while the survivors, commanded by Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck), must find a way to keep the stern afloat as they wait for rescue to arrive.
Based on the novel detailing the true events, and testimony from the survivors, “The Finest Hours” embarks on a journey of survival and determination.
Capturing the feel of 1950s New England, the film is overwhelmed with imagery and details that help transport and engage the audience in the world of the story.
What follows is a slow advance of separate narratives, from the romance of Bernie and Miriam, to the struggle of the men aboard the Pendleton. These two subplots move at a laborious pace but eventually come together, forming an overall, larger narrative structure.
However, it takes over half of the film for this to come to pass, and the story suffers because of it. Namely, the romantic subplot is rather dull compared to the plight of the Pendleton. Audiences are forced to wait a considerable amount of time before the storm — a force of nature — injects true conflict into the narrative. The second half soon accelerates to an exciting final act, as if the filmmakers were trying to make up for the poorly-paced start.
The crew aboard the doomed ship is given a varying degree of character development via successful portrayals from the actors; their situation is sudden, and therefore little time is wasted on exposition. Instead their stories are shown through their various performances, in a much more subtle way than the film’s main characters are handled. The men at sea become much more interesting than the cast on land. Although the film does improve, it leaves a desire to know more about the sailors, with one wishing for more focus on their struggle and fight.
“The Finest Hours” from director Craig Gillespie has a rocky start with an uninteresting romantic subplot, but steadily builds to a satisfying climax.
While the perils of the sailors stranded on a doomed ship are easily the most interesting portion of the film, the contrast between the two story lines manages to weave together with decent portrayals from the cast. This telling of a true event shows the success that can stem from those who are relentless in the face of devastating peril.
My grade: 6.5 out of 10 stars.
(Timothy Hogg is a copy editor for The Derrick./The News-Herald. He has a minor in film and media studies from Slippery Rock University. Readers may contact him by email at timothyhogg.thederrick@gmail.com.)
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