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| Tookey's Review |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
2012 |
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| Genre: |
DISASTER
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| Origin: |
Spain |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
107 |
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Impressive but unimaginative.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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Juan Bayana’s The Impossible offers a very realistic, well acted vision of the 2004 tsunami that hit the headlines and resulted in more than 230,000 deaths.
It tells the true story of a Spanish family whose holiday in a Thai hotel was cruelly interrupted. They have been Americanised for international consumption, though the leading actors are in fact Australian (Naomi Watts, pictured right) and British (Ewan McGregor).
Both are near their best, and the three boys who play their sons aren’t bad either. It would be hard to fault the film acting-wise or technically. As an exercise in “you are there” realism, it’s terrific.
It’s much less sophisticated as drama. The manipulation of our emotions is blatant. There were many moments when I was dry-eyed, simply because I knew the director was trying that little bit too hard to make me cry.
Another fault lies with Sergio G. Sanchez’s screenplay, which sticks too closely to reality. The story doesn’t take any unexpected turns or reveal anything surprising about character, so that it feels like a tactful drama-documentary, not a fully fledged feature film.
It needed more imagination and perhaps a less limited focus to turn it into something truly memorable. I felt I was watching an emotional experience, not undergoing one.
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