21 January 2013
Directed by: Juan Antonio Bayona
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast
What It’s About: During a vacation, a family fights to reunite with one other after devastating natural disaster strikes.
Rated PG-13 (for intense realistic disaster sequences, including disturbing injury images and brief nudity)
Runtime: 114 minutes
By Cole Nelson, Staff Writer
Nature works in mysterious ways. In Juan Antonio Bayona’s film The Impossible, nature works as a devastatingly powerful disaster that results in distress, but, more importantly, it simultaneously presents itself as the unifying strength between an admirable family in search of one another.
Focusing on a family that is split apart by the catastrophic 2004 tsunami that hit Southeast Asia, The Impossible is a genuine horror story. As opposed to many slasher or graphically excruciating movies classified under the “horror” genre, this film delivers a nearly intolerable sense of destruction and agony, particularly considering that the events depicted within it are true.
The story begins with the Bennett’s, a family of five—mother, father and three sons—as they arrive at their relaxing (for the time being) beach resort in Thailand. The family is happy—they play on the beach, swim together and celebrate Christmas—until distant palm trees rip from their roots and violently hurl towards them. Instinctively, the father Henry (Ewan McGregor) grabs his two youngest sons, Simon (OakleePendergast) and Thomas (Samuel Joslin), as they are swept up by the tremendous wall of churned, brown ocean water. Relatively nearby, prior to the wave, the mother Maria (Naomi Watts) and the oldest son Lucas (Tom Holland) are lifted off of their feet and carried in a different direction, separating the family.
The Impossible was, with respect to its name, truly hard to sit through (and no easier to review, for that matter) due to its astonishingly realistic depiction of the tsunami that still sits fresh in many minds; it is a formidably emotional film to start off the year. The terrifying force of nature is brought forth in such a way that I was compelled to appreciate all that is taken for granted, especially the stronghold of a genuine family. The determining force of the Bennett family’s desire to reunite with one other contrasts the disaster aspect of the film, nearly—but not entirely—balancing nature’s potent spectrum.
The Bennett’s inspirational story is a stunningly emotional one. Through it, The Impossible demonstrates the power of not only nature, but of film. The film adopts a documentary-like style, employing several handheld and “shaky-cam” shots, which supplement its influential story of bravery and willpower by adding to the realism of the circumstance. For a film that portrays such a traumatic event, The Impossible was paradoxically pleasing in terms of aesthetics. The beauty of the compositions complements the cohesive tendencies of a family and blunts the enduring detrimental strengths at hand.
The Impossible is a tearjerker—a film that I expect to only see once in my lifetime due to its tremendous poignancy. As informative as it is emotional, The Impossible is a singular experience of a lifetime, for the viewers and those it depicts, that arouses the sense of kinship in all. From relaxing to heart-wrenching, desperation to determination, this story of compassion will likely go unforgotten in the hearts of audiences.
9/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU4mXJRHIcQ
Courtesy of static.guim.co.uk