Review of The Impossible (2012) by Dave J — 10 Jan 2014

Thursday, January 9, 2013.

(2012) The Impossible.

DRAMA.

Based on the accounts accordingly to the person who's actually lived it by the name of María Belón. The movie which stars Naomi Watts plays Maria vacationing with her husband Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their 3 kids along with other families who also chose to spend their Christmas vacation on one of few vacation spots of Thailand. And it's not very long that the 'tsunami' begins to happen which is when the "real movie" starts, since viewers are only aware of the impact and destruction without fully knowing what it's like to be in it for the director makes it very clear that a tsunami breaks families apart once you're together, and that the film is really about the reunification- not the closure. And that the devastation is not the same as a house fire since the wrecking environment is way too huge for it extends to many football fields. We already know that the main characters are going to come together but in what circumstances and to what obstacles for it acts as if it were telling this amazing story to me. This tsunami acts like a stream of water eroding onto a beach except these are huge and much bigger, a colossal stream absorbing everything on it's path like you're on a fast current river except that the debris is everywhere from trees, to vehicles to tables. And since we're already invested in this particular family, we are wondering whether or not they can all be reunited again, since many other families are experiencing the exact same problem for the film is about hope. It's easy to make a film about the dead except that it doesn't really go anywhere, it is however, hard to make a film about them when it's defined by it's performances and they're some of the best I had ever seen particularly Naomi Watts and the families oldest son Lucas played by Tom Holland. And it's Ewan McGregor's best work he has ever done since "Trainspotting". Some of the negative criticism I had read seems like they wanted the film to go on a different direction as if they're only aware of it without experiencing this for themselves as if it'll never happen to them. And I find that this is a much harder film to work on in comparison to other catastrophe films coming from catastrophe director Roland Emmerich just because it actually happened as opposed to something that is entirely made up.

I only wish that there were more actual survival stories like this since it doesn't have anything to do with politics. They also provide viewers a little bit of awareness of what one would have to do if something like this ever happens again.

3 out of 4 stars.