Based on a book seriously entitled The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Rescue by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman, our latest true story movie takes place in 1952 and concerns one Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) who, guess what, leads a team of fellow sailors to commit the most daring rescue in U.S. Coast Guard history (I’m gonna take the book’s word for it). Webber’s up for the task, but is disappointed to be sent out before he gets permission to marry his girlfriend Miriam (Holliday Grainger) who is duly freaked out about her future hubby’s safety as he heads out into a particularly nasty storm in only a small tugboat.
The ones in need of rescue are the sailors aboard the SS Pendleton, which has split in half and is steadily sinking. The men are panicked and in a violent mindset, but order is maintained by the quiet and level-headed Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) who uses his engineering knowledge to keep the ship afloat while also aware that it will have to either be run aground or sunk. Little does he know of the daring rescuers already en route to partake in the very finest hours in the history of mankind!
I am being slightly irreverent about the honestly brave men and what they went through during the whole ordeal, but that is not out of disrespect for the real people, but merely a response to how The Finest Hours presents the information. I am open to the idea that an actually exciting and moving film could have been made from this story, but in the hands of writers Eric Johnson, Scott Silver, and Paul Tamasy, as well as director Craig Gillespie, we get a product that goes through the motions of storytelling, using forceful tactics of patriotic pandering to make it seem like we should care more than we do.
The scenes of the very wet and windy rescue that make up the second half of the movie are more or less compelling, though the fact that the endeavor is going to undoubtedly be successful hangs over the proceedings enough to keep them from being too intense. There’s no surprises anywhere else in the narrative either, with the loyal Miriam standing her ground to Webber’s Officer (Eric Bana) taking up a needless amount of screen time. Pretty much all of Affleck’s character’s confrontations with the other men on the Pendleton feel like they were included just to have some drama, but none of it really works because there’s nothing genuine about them. The blandly angry characters holler and fuss, then work together again in no time flat.
The Finest Hours is unimpressive filmmaking, but those who are interested in the story will probably still find enough entertainment value to warrant a viewing. It’s a satisfactorily cut-and-dry experience that won’t blow your mind or wear out its welcome, but i personally have spent finer hours elsewhere.
C+
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