The Impossible

Despite occurring in Asia, the Boxing day Tsunami of 2004 was truly a world event, with ripples emanating around the world as many of the 280,000 plus victims were holiday makers from all over the world.

Focusing on a single family's true story, albeit changing their nationality from Spanish to English, was always going to invite accusations of filtering a tragic story through the eyes of a white privileged family, rather than the locals who lost everything.

This is perhaps unfair, in the same way "Schindlers List" might be accused of focusing on those few that survived. Highlighting one families initial struggle, by telling a story a modern audience can comprehend or realistically watch, is the only practical option. Artistic licence is regretfully necessary to secure not only movie funding but offer a ray of hope for a western audience to desperately cling to.

And holding on, is what you may have to do, even with the glimmer of hope offered. This is truthful, unflinching and harrowing film making.

Be warned, this is no easy watch.

The story centres on Maria (Naomi Watts ), her husband (Ewan Mcgregor) and three young sons, Lucas (Tom Holland), Simon (Samuel Joslin) and Thomas (Oaklee Pendergast), on holiday at a upmarket beach resort in Khao Lak.

The sense of foreboding is swiftly alluded to and when the wave hits, the effect is quite breathtaking. The effects are terrifying to watch but more than that, there is visceral quality to the sound and turmoil. A maelstrom of not knowing which way is up with the sheer terror conveyed in a unsentimental manner, stripped of the usual Hollywood veneer. "Towering Inferno or "2012" this is not, a disaster movie that conveys just that, disaster on a colossal human scale.

Managing to survive, Lucas and mum are reunited. The pair attempt to find help for the serious injuries sustained by Maria. The foley and special effect work providing suitably grisly and very believable sound effects and wounds. At times this only stops just short of horror, it is intense, emotional and deeply troubling. The response of Lucas to his mothers injuries and state of undress, is truly gut wrenching.

To say too much more would rob the story of it's emotional highs and lows. Overall the film is sensitively handled, with the film makers taking pains to show the local effort and help provided, hammering home that no-one is safe when a Tsunami hits, white, brown, rich or poor. Latterly the film suggests that that being wealthy or just holding good insurance cover, can whisk you away from all the unpleasantness. In the modern world, this represents undisputed fact. Whether this is "right", is a philosophical debate not likely to be resolved in a two hour movie.

The acting is uniformly good, Watts gets the most to do and excels in a role that cannot have been easy from both a physical and emotional sense. The young boys are all exceptional, on occasion Tom Holland showing world class talent. The director Juan Antonio Bayona, teasing superb performances even from his youngest cast members. McGregor is solid and certainly does not let the side down.

Whether the film needed to be made or indeed whether the intended audience exists, is subject to debate. Does it provide a small but just watchable glimpse into what such an event would feel like, yes. Will it live with you for a few days at least, certainly. For those directly involved, is this a fitting tribute to the human spirit and kindness shown, impossible to say.

Summary

A natural disaster movie that is both affecting, effective and unflinching in it's depiction of a very real recent event with several notable performances.

This is not for everyone, despite the focus on a white middle class family, this is no airbrushed Hollywood watered down TV movie. From the moment the Tsunami arrives, an emotional roller-coaster is unleashed and is not for the faint of heart.

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I watched The Impossible with a clear intention to remain a little emotionally detached. I knew from the trailer that a disaster was imminent from the word go, so I braced myself for impact and kept my fingers crossed that Ewan Mcgregor was going to give more than the lack luster performance that i feel like I've been growing accustomed to. Okay, so i was crying from about 10 minutes into the film. While McGregor is credible, although still not a return to form, the real performance here is from Naomi Watts. She is gripping to watch, and lends credibility to the rest of the cast as she watches the world fall apart around her. I winced, squirmed and spent many minutes forgetting to breathe. An emotional roller-coaster which, while somewhat lacking in depth in storyline, more than makes up for it with a strong edit. Great job with an average script.

I checked this movie out because of the actors, and damn did they deliver. Ewan McGreggor and Naomi Watts are superb, as always, but it's Tom Holland (in his first breakout role) that steals the show. Arguably, he's the central character (although all three of those actors take center stage at various times), and he easily showcases a star on the rise.

The film itself is a sucker punch. It hits hard and keeps you hooked either through suspense or heartache. One caveat though: this is by far the most intense and difficult PG-13 film I've ever seen. I'm sure it was rated R until it was toned down for the MPAA, and it probably squeaked by with it's PG-13 rating by only a hair. If you're have difficulty with reality based trauma or are in a headspace that might not tolerate this well, give it some time before you see it--it doesn't hold back what being in a tsunami would feel like. I actually thought it WAS rated R until I checked out the IMDb page.

Overall, this is a good watch and a story that should be seen.

Disaster films have an odd reputation, often merely dismissed as popcorn fodder, so it's strange to have a film billed as such but to put character and drama over spectacle. Then again, as it's based on a true story, it's probably unfair to label 'The Impossible' as such a movie because the plight of the characters is at its heart throughout the entire duration. Perhaps this film is best described as a family drama with elements of disaster, then.

The Boxing Day tsunami was one of those events that put our lives into perspective, and the film achieves the same feat. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts play the parents of three children who decide to spend an exotic Christmas in Thailand. Suitcases are unpacked, presents are exchanged, but the sense of impending disaster is overwhelmingly unsettling. When the inevitable does happen, the following 15 minutes are intense, realistic and terrifying; an onslaught of terrific practical effects and incredible sound design. However, after that concentrated outburst, the drama shifts down a gear to a more intimate, personal level, which is no less frightful.

That is why this film shines; it's about the smaller picture. By focusing on the survival of this one family rather than the scale of the event itself, a better, and more human, representation of the disaster is displayed. The performances from the central cast are nothing short of spectacular, especially Tom Holland, who carries the film for a hefty chunk of the running time with a gravitas that many older actors would fail to achieve.

Many criticisms have been made in the press about the anglicisation of the story; in reality, the family was Spanish. To me, that seemed to be a decision to globalise this story to the maximum amount of people, a decision that was warranted in my eyes. Thus, the main issue with the film was the score to be unnecessarily overriding in certain scenes, adding an unwanted sentimentality to the film. The scenes which worked best were confrontational, uncompromising and, you guessed it, without a swelling orchestra. Nevertheless, this is a minor gripe considering that this is a film where tears are wholeheartedly justified.

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THE IMPOSSIBLE (2012)

The 2004 tsunami was one of the deadliest natural disasters on record. Because it occurred in the Christmas season and hit many resort area beaches its death toll of almost 250,000 was indiscriminate, taking not only South Asians but many visiting vacationers. People everywhere were affected by it. My own relatives who were then living in Thailand were destined that day to be on the beach, but, unknown to the rest of us, illness caused them to alter their plans. I personally heard from Thai acquaintances the story of nieces and nephews who excitedly ran to the shore to see the wondrous phenomenon of the receding ocean, only to be swamped by its return. Weeks later, flying over the Indonesian coastline, I could see with my own eyes just how far inland the wave had rushed, and the devastation it had wrought.

How do you frame such a catastrophe in human terms, and present a situation of pure chaos in a way that makes a compelling story? How do you tell such a tale in a way that respects both the lost and the survivors, many of whom suffered personal tragedies as well, and more of whom bore the guilt of survival? How does one story tell some of the many stories of that day? These were among the challenges that faced director Juan Antonio Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sanchez when they decided to put an account of the 2004 tsunami on the screen. Their solution was to deal with one British family on vacation in Thailand from Japan, but their film uses that family as a catalyst to show the tsunami's awful effect not only on the tourist population but on the local people who suffered even more.

Both the film itself and the filmmakers have taken pains to say that this is a "true story," and they have aimed for the greatest possible authenticity in the circumstances. They have based themselves on detailed interviews with the family members and with other survivors, some of whom actually appear in the film. (For example, those who tell their tales to Ewan McGregor at the bus station are almost all actual survivors.) While footage of the tsunami strike itself was shot in a water tank at Alicante on the Spanish coast, and a couple of days filming of interiors took place in Spanish studios, the remainder of this picture was shot on location in Thailand using the real places of the story, such as the Orchid Beach Hotel in Phang Nga, and the actual hospital where much of the action occurs.

The actual Thai locations and the many Thai actors keep the production values superb, and give this film an authenticity it would not otherwise have. So of course do the survivors who take part, whose emotions are sometimes all too real. Many video shots exist of the tsunami hitting the Asian beaches, but no one who was not there can have any real idea of what it must have been like to have been caught up by its waters. Bayona has chosen to focus not so much on the massive power of the tidal wave itself but on the sheer terror and disorientation it must have created for those submerged in it, and upon the human toll it took. But his scenes of its striking are horrific enough to give some sense of its magnitude, even on the screen. Nor does he pull his punches in some of the grisly scenes that follow. The impressive results that display both the striking wave and its terrible aftermath owe much to production designer Eugenio Caballero.

The big names here are Ewan MacGregor as Henry and Naomi Watts as Maria, his doctor wife, while Geraldine Chaplin has a cameo role as a lady who comforts one of their sons on a starlit night. MacGregor and Watts seem to suit their parts, but in a sense they are playing predictable roles. They become a couple literally torn apart, a father having to search among the debris for the remainder of his family and a mother who for much of the picture hovers close to death. The family's three sons are played by Tom Holland (Lucas), Samuel Joslin (Thomas) and Oaklee Pendergast (Simon). The two younger boys are cute as well as being effective, but that is not really a word that suits Tom Holland. The young British actor displays a surprising maturity and delivers a wonderfully measured performance, reminiscent of a younger Daniel Radcliffe. Despite the bigger names involved, it is his portrayal of Lucas that carries the picture since he is the hub around whom events revolve as the individual stories unfold. That is a lot to ask of a young actor, but Holland delivers.

No one story can ever do justice to the events of that day and the days that followed. Nor can a story set in just one location ever capture just how wide-ranging were the tsunami's effects. How can you tell the story of what happened almost simultaneously in Indonesia and India, Myanmar and Malaysia, and eventually affected even the African coast. Thankfully, Bayona doesn't try. He focuses on the few, hoping that through them audiences will better understand the tale of the many. For such a story, The Impossible is perhaps a more than fitting title, but the film works and gives a view that is both visually impressive and dramatically moving.

The Impossible premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2012. It will open in Spain on October 11, and go into general release in North America in the last week of December.

Ray Lahey