by Scott Silver (screenplay), (screenplay), Eric Johnson (screenplay), Casey Sherman (book), and Michael J. Tougias (book)
Walt Disney Pictures
During the round of Pre-Oscars publicity in 2013, Emma Thompson said during The Hollywood Reporter’s Oscar Roundtable that when she was in her 30s, she was constantly offered roles where she would be the woman who runs up to the hero and says “Please don’t go and do that brave thing. Don’t! No, no, no, no, no!” and that she turned them all down. This is a movie in which the main female character is pretty much there to do just that.
This is about the 1952 Coast Guard rescue of 33 crew from the USS Pendleton– an oil tanker that broke in half during a massive nor’easter (That’s “Really big fucking storm” when translated from the New England). The 34 crewmen managed to keep the stern (butt) afloat until a 36-foot life-saving boat built to hold 12 people brought them back to Chatham, Massachusetts. (One died during the rescue.)
It’s based on the book The Finest Hours by Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias. I haven’t read the book, and all I know about the actual rescue of the Pendelton is the very scant thumbnail on Wikipedia, so… I cannot speak to accuracy.
The main story is told from two perspectives: those of the crew on the back half of the Pendleton, and that of the Coast Guard guys. It’s a good way to approach the story, given that neither group could communicate with each other, and had to work independently to reach their goal. I know I keep talking about objectives in terms of storytelling and acting, but this is another fantastic example of super-objective, objective for the length of the show, and objective for the length of the scene (and break it down further into objective for each line). If the writer, actor and director are all clear on what those are, then every single thing in a work serves the story.
On the Coast Guard side, Chris Pine plays Bernie Webber, a Coast Guard bo’sun stationed in Chatham, Massachusetts. When they get information that the ass-end of the Pendleton is out there, blowing its whistle for help, he’s given orders to take out the 36-foot long rescue boat with three other guys and go out to help. The storm is bad, the waves are huge, and in order to get to the Pendelton, they need to make it over the Chatham sand bar, which, when the seas are rough, create large, vicious, terrible, tiny-boat crushing waves. While the older fisherman kind of quietly mutter that it’s totally okay if the Coast Guard guys toodle around a bit and come back saying, “Nope, sorry, can’t get across the bar,” Bernie says “Orders say we gotta go out, they don’t say we gotta come back.”
Adding to the stress of “this storm really wants to kill us” is the fact that last time Bernie went out on a rescue during a nor’easter, he wasn’t able to perform the rescue. Guilt! The weight of a community on his shoulders! Redemption arc! Blah blah blah.
Naturally, this storm happens after he and his girlfriend get engaged, so there’s the whole “I don’t want my man to put himself into danger when I haven’t boned him yet” vibe. (It isn’t explicitly stated that they haven’t boned, but he’s the most straight-and-narrow person on the planet, and it’s a Disney movie set in 1952, so….they have not boned.) It’s frustrating that Miriam (the girlfriend-turned-fiancee played by Holliday Granger) doesn’t get to do anything other than tearfully wait. Like, she doesn’t get very involved with the efforts to help survivors or anything; she just drives around and feels sorry for herself. We don’t get anything of her inner life or past, but to be fair, we don’t get much of anyone else’s, either. But she is one of the three women with more than one line, so….
Look, it’s just frustrating that we get some many movies where the dudes do all the things and the women do the emotional labor. Grainger is great with the material she’s given, but we just don’t know anything about Miriam. Even though the beginning of the movie is the first time they meet, we don’t get anything about her except that she doesn’t like the water. Why? No idea.
Where the movie ended up working the best was on the Pendelton. With the captain dead, the guy who assumes command is Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck), the engine guy. He isn’t well-liked by most of the crew, but he has enough allies and is the guy who comes up with an actual plan. His whole thing is that he approaches this as an engineering problem- he has half a boat, he has engines, he has a hole in the hull, and he has a rudder but no tiller. He comes up with a plan to improvise a tiller and where to send the ship to maximize the chance of survival. My grandfather would have LOVED this part and then he would have spent several hours discussing if what was shown on screen would have worked and how it could have been done better. He was a mechanical engineer who designed cranes, so this would have been fun for him. (Actually, he would have loved this whole movie.)
The Pendleton crew is kind of stock characters (loner engine guy, Graham McTavish being Graham McTavish, hot-headed guy who doesn’t have a plan – he just doesn’t like Casey’s, and jovial cook), but there was a clear effort made to make sure to use diverse casting. I couldn’t quickly find many pictures of the Pendleton crew, but there was a Latino dude and a couple of black dudes in the cast, with lines even! So, good job on that score, movie.
I found this to be a perfectly workmanlike Disney live action, based on a true events movie. It’s not great, but it’s good, and while I didn’t feel like, “Uplifted by the resiliency of the human spirit” or whatever, I did really have the urge to feed people hot soup (as you would if you saw a boat come in full of cold soggy sailors).
The Finest Hours is in theaters now and you can find tickers (US) at Fandango and Moviefone.
Nice review. I liked this movie, but didn’t love it. One of my main issues was the pacing. Once Bernie and crew were out in their wee boat, fighting the Chatham Baaaah, I was all in, because the special effects were great and the sea looked terrifying. And I loved the stuff on the Pendleton. But I definitely wanted a bit more from the beginning.
It would definitely have been better if Miriam had more to do– or, to be honest, if they just kind of scrapped her part, since she didn’t really do anything. They could have launched us right into it and left out the sweet but slow stuff at the start.
Also, I heart Graham MacTavish.
It’s a bit of a non-sequitur, but a recent film that did make me feel “Uplifted by the resiliency of the human spirit” that I’ve *finally* gotten around to watching, was ‘The Martian’. Happy, happy, happy.
Emma Thompson’s complaint inspires me to quote from Sunset Mantle by Alter S. Reiss, a heroic fantasy where the hero and his wife have a fine partnership and encourage each other to be as brave as possible:that what you expect of me?” Cete was silent just as long.
(I wouldn’t call Sunset Mantle a great romance because the character of the heroine is a bit underdeveloped apart from her being nearly perfect, but it’s a good fantasy in which a mutually-supportive marriage plays an important role, so yay for that.)
Is it “Boston Accent: The Movie,” co-starring Graham McTavish as the British [Fine, Scottish] Actor Who’s Trying His Best But Doesn’t Quite Have It? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLwbzGyC6t4
Sorry for the borked comment there, delete the bit after the colon from the first paragraph.
@Marjorie: No, for a couple reasons. The Cape Cod accent isn’t the Boston accent, and I’m not familiar enough with it to say if an attempt is good or bad. But mostly Graham’s character isn’t from the Cape, so he doesn’t even try one (I….think….? he has a Generic American Accent, but I saw the movie a week ago and a lot has happened since then.)
Loved your review and gotta agree with Emma Thompson. In the trailer that girl says it’s a suicide mission so many times, I was ready to throw her out, too. It’s just cheap, uninteresting stereotyping. If you read history, it’s clear that men are just as likely as women to avoid suicide missions.
Holliday Grainger is such a great actress! Her work in The Borgias as Lucrezia is fantastic and she was also a great Estella in the Great Expectations movie (too bad they barely used her in that too which is silly since Estella is one of the best Dickens characters). It’s a shame to know that her character doesn’t get to do much but wring her hands over Chris Pine in this.
I saw a preview for this in Imax 3D, and I have a feeling the whole thing was made to capitalize on that format. It did look like it would be pretty awesome viewed thusly.
Thanks for the review. I don’t see many movies in the theater, but have been debating about going to this one. It may be easier for me to take on a small screen, tho.
FYI–the book link goes to the children’s version of the book, but there’s also an adult version by the same author (which I apparently bought several years ago then forgot about–a pitfall of the overambitious book collection).
Maybe the social norms of the fifties meant women weren’t allowed to be in the coast guard. Not every film has to be a female heroine feminist propaganda piece. I found the female character unnecessary for the plot of 4 men braving the roaring sea to save those who remained on the marooned tanker.