The Impossible

I try not to read too many reviews before going into a movie because I don’t want some pompous scrub affecting my experience or my take on the film with their snarky comments (this is coming from me).  But I skimmed Devin Feraci’s review of The Impossible because he’s funny and typically has decent takes on movies. And in his review he complained about how Bayona’s  portrayal of some of the true events that took place during the devastating tsunami that hit Thailand was so overtly sappy, that all it was missing was a dog in distress. Well after seeing the film, I have to say that I actually agree with him on most of his takes but the dog that it was missing was not one in distress but Benji the wonder dog or Airbud the surfer! This would have at least made this ridiculous movie worth watching.  He could have just had Benji bark at everyone trying to warn them of the impending doom that was to come, while having the distracted yuppies ignore him until the end when they realize that the power of love Benji displays will ultimately reunite them in the midst of this disaster. Or better yet, have Airbud show off his surfing skills by dragging each of the blond haired and blue eyed kids to safety! You would of course also have to give him one of those cheesy shell necklaces that Patrick Swayze wears in Pointe Break just for freshness.

What makes this movie so absurd is the fact that 99% of the people that were affected by this tsunami were Thai and instead of focusing on them, we are fed this story about this over privileged family who is on Christmas vacation in Thailand. Now while I will admit that their story is rather incredible it is just beyond belief that the entire Thai community was basically ignored. They could have at least done something similar to Babel where they show multiple stories of different people that were affected on this day. But no, we are left to cry over a bunch of people who are probably are bosses in real life and somehow still have access to their cell phones after they’ve been immersed in sea water. 

The only equivalent I can think of is if Spike Lee had gone down to do his Katrina documentary and instead of focusing on the people from New Orleans he instead spent 3 hours telling the story of this French elitist Jacque who was in town to obtain some artifacts from the Louisiana Purchase. But due to the flood our poor Jacque was so inconvenienced by the 2 feet of water that was in his hotel room, that he had to pass this menial task on to a local black boy while he went off to get one last hand job from his favorite masseuse Bai Ling before the heart and soul of this city was changed forever! Ah the horrors of natural disasters; a man will now have to stay at home to cheat on his wife instead of going to the safety of New Orleans! 

 Anyway, for the entire family to survive this disaster that hit them while they were basically on the beach and then to find one another amongst the wreckage that ensued took as much of an act of God as the tsunami itself. But the manner in which they found one another was not interesting enough to fill a 2 hour movie. It really should have been a CNN special with Anderson Cooper and maybe a one hour made for tv movie on TLC. 

The 20 minutes or so that was dedicated to the actual water engulfing the land was by far the best part of the movie. The fx looked good and you never once doubted the reality of the situation as the power of the rushing water destroyed everything in its path. The means that Maria (Naomi Watts) and her son Lucas (Tom Holland) used to make it out of this horrific scene were really the same things that everyone else would have imagined themselves doing; holding on for dear life to any and everything that appeared to be stable. The injuries they sustained while doing so were pretty gruesome and life threatening . Watts in particular does probably the best job of anyone in the film as she tries to balance both coping with the horror of the situation and trying to hold on to some semblance of humanity. But where this film falls short is the period between the water reaching land and when they actually find one another. It’s just one uninteresting  poor decision after the other that somehow leads to them randomly ending up in the same place. 

In the days leading up to this horrible event, Bayona through a number of wide shots was able to cleverly show both the beauty of the ocean while also subtly making a statement of how we really are at the mercy of this resource that we depend on daily. With each shot, you couldn’t help but be fearful of what was to come while secretly shouting in your head to the people that were there “Get out! now!” 

While Ewan Mcgregor and Watts do their best to make this a quality film, they just aren’t able to quite do so. You get one cheesy and laughable scene after the other and the only cool part was that Watts was literally starting to look like a zombie mid movie. I kept hoping that she’d try to eat the woman in the bed next to her while Rick from the The Walking Dead shows up to wreck shop! 

Overall I rate this movie as WEAK and suggest that you not fall prey to the Oscar hype.

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