Sunday, December 13, 2015

Review of IN THE HEART OF THE SEA: Wrath of a Whale

December 10, 2015




"In the Heart of the Sea" the film is based on a nonfiction book of the same title written by Nathaniel Philbrick in 2000. The book recounted the sinking of an American whaleship from Nantucket called the Essex after it was attacked by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean in November 1820, and their 90 harrowing days at sea on their rowboats before they were rescued. Philbrick used Essex cabin boy Thomas Nickerson's account to write his book, along with that of the first mate Owen Chase, who became the central character of the film.

The film framed the main shipwreck story with a fictional story of author Herman Melville interviewing its own version Thomas Nickerson, an old man permanently scarred by his harrowing experience as a cabin boy on the Essex. Melville would then eventually use the information he gathered from this interview to write his timeless 1851 classic "Moby Dick." In reality, it was Owen Chase's 1821 published account that inspired Melville to write "Moby Dick", not Nickerson's (which was only found in 1960, authenticated in 1980 and finally published in 1984). 

Chris Hemsworth was very well cast as Owen Chase. His towering height and magnetic screen presence served well for Hemsworth to be convincing as the fearless hero, capable whaler and honorable ship official. You can appreciate his commitment to his craft when you see him lose actual body heft in the course of this film to make the months lost at sea as realistic as possible. After his turns as the Huntsman to Kristen Stewart's Snow White and this one, it would seem Hemsworth also fits perfectly as hero in period films, in addition to that god from Asgard. 

Benjamin Walker effectively played Captain George Pollard, Jr., a man named captain of the Essex by nepotism and not by actual worth. I recognized actor Walker as the same guy who played Abraham Lincoln the Vampire Hunter in a 2012 graphic novel fantasy film. Pollard's competition for authority against the alpha-male Chase was interesting at the start but this conflict lost steam towards the end without another climactic confrontation.

Tom Holland (the actor already announced to be the new Spider-Man) played young Thomas Nickerson, the cabin boy and youngest member of the Essex crew. Cillian Murphy was Matthew Joy, as a crew member caught in a difficult dilemma because of a morally-challenging order by his captain. In the framing sequences, Ben Whishaw played Herman Melville, while the ever-reliable Brendan Gleeson played the old Thomas Nickerson with Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark in "Game of Thrones") playing the loyal Mrs. Nickerson.

It has been some time already since director Ron Howard had Oscar-caliber epic films like "Apollo 13" (1995) and "A Beautiful Mind" (2001). This new one may get awards attention for him, but chances for nominations would be higher in the technical aspects of visual effects, cinematography, costumes and makeup. On the negative side, the staticness of the storytelling narrative scenes and the redundant shipwreck survival scenes took too much time and may feel boring for some.

The scenes with the whales were the definite highlights of this film. That long sequence depicting the capture of a whale up to those graphic scenes of harvesting the blubber out from a whale carcass were very memorable. The ferocity of that great white whale was frighteningly real even if it were only computer-generated. The way Howard executed those scenes of those majestic creatures of the ocean, you will feel and understand the whale's anger against the man's cruel invasion into their territory. 7/10.

16 comments:

  1. Good job, congratulations. I like your blog.

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  2. I am going to watch IN THE HEART OF THE SEA: Wrath of a Whale this weekend. I have been going to the cinema so regular almost 3 times in a week during this holiday season.

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  3. hmm, i watched the trailer and while all the CG effects really look majestic. I chose not to watch it in the end because it kind of felt like an overkill?

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  4. I will watch this because I have not read the book. I saw the trailer and it looks promising. I think the casting isn't bad either.

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  5. I am more into books than movies but the trailer was really exciting. I will make sure to watch the movie after reading your review. Great post :)

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  6. Yeah, I think movies with the same or similar plots are quite boring. There must be some unique and really interesting twist to the story aside from the usual shipwreck survival scenes.

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  7. Moby Dick is a favorite childhood classic! So it's nice to see adaptations and films and novels of the same theme. I haven't seen In the heart of the sea, but will try to watch after the holidays. Good review!

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  8. Sad to say I missed this in the theaters, but I would love to see it as I'm interested on the story line itself. I'll wait for a bluray release for this one!

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  9. It would be nice to see how they get past the desperation of getting lost in the sea. It would be nice to see Chris Hemsworth as a different type of hero here.

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  10. Hmm, I haven't been able to update my blog reviews recently with the exception of those which were sponsored by the production company. Will be good to be able to catch up soon!

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  11. Whoa! I didn't know about this Ship Wreck. I'm gonna search and learn more about it.
    Btw, its indeed the dedication of the actors when they lose weight and get skinny for a movie...

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  12. I wanted to watch this on big screen also. However, went for vacation when it was up. Anyway, thanks for the review.

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  13. I saw the trailer of this and I wanted to watch it on big screen, unfortunately I was so busy then. I will read the book first perhaps.

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  14. Surprisingly, I haven't read Moby Dick yet! I really want to watch this. However, it seems that the move theaters here only play Tagalog movies around this time of the year until next month.

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  15. I really wanted to watch this movie, unfortunately because I live far from the city I wasnt able to. I didn't know this has book though.

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  16. I really love watching these kind of movies but I am equally afraid of deep water too even on the screen.
    Thank you for the review!

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