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A story about the bravery of men and the struggle for survival, The Finest Hours is a ho-hum traditional rescue drama that is hurt by lack of vision from the director. In 1952 a pair of oil tankers split in half and while everyone is concerned about the one, a small time coast guard takes a crew of 4 on a small boat to rescue the other.
A true story told with laziness and modest budget. Had the film had strong talent behind it,maybe everything about it wouldn't look and feel cheesy. From badly obvious water CGI to questionable acting choices, The Finest Hours lacks the emotional punch that most rescue dramas would have. It asks too much with giving too little.
Chris Pine plays a coast guard who comes off as a little slow. At least that's how I received Chris Pine's performance. There was something off about it, everything he does feels like he's second guessing himself, even basic interactions with friends. Maybe it was Pine's attempt to put on an accent, but his constant tiptoeing around the dialogue makes the character feel dumb to me. His crew, one of which is played by Ben Foster, have zero character development. They literally could have been cardboard cutouts of people and nothing would have changed. One guy controls a light, the other sits in a hole in the boat. I'm surprised to see Foster in this role to be honest, he always seems to tackle interesting characters and deliver unorthodox performance that, at the very least, make it memorable. Here, he is given and delivers nothing.
Affleck is on the tanker that is sinking. He's the smart guy who knows everything about the ship, so much that despite the constant bickering between the crew on what to do, he manages to save their lives. This is another performance that feels dialed back. Restrained, if you will. That's the one word to perfectly describe everything about this film. The acting, the story, the budget, the action sequences...all restrained.
To make matters worse, the on land drama is stagnant. The relationship and chemistry between Pine and Holliday Grainger who plays his fiancee is stale. The Finest Hours is old-fashioned filmmaking, to a fault. It takes no chances, isn't strong enough or have enough heart to tug on any emotional strings it tries to play. I can only imagine what the film could have been like with someone with more vision behind the camera. Everything about this film wants to be better, unfortunately it's not.
The Finest Hours
(Craig Gillespie)
(Craig Gillespie)
A story about the bravery of men and the struggle for survival, The Finest Hours is a ho-hum traditional rescue drama that is hurt by lack of vision from the director. In 1952 a pair of oil tankers split in half and while everyone is concerned about the one, a small time coast guard takes a crew of 4 on a small boat to rescue the other.
A true story told with laziness and modest budget. Had the film had strong talent behind it,maybe everything about it wouldn't look and feel cheesy. From badly obvious water CGI to questionable acting choices, The Finest Hours lacks the emotional punch that most rescue dramas would have. It asks too much with giving too little.
Chris Pine plays a coast guard who comes off as a little slow. At least that's how I received Chris Pine's performance. There was something off about it, everything he does feels like he's second guessing himself, even basic interactions with friends. Maybe it was Pine's attempt to put on an accent, but his constant tiptoeing around the dialogue makes the character feel dumb to me. His crew, one of which is played by Ben Foster, have zero character development. They literally could have been cardboard cutouts of people and nothing would have changed. One guy controls a light, the other sits in a hole in the boat. I'm surprised to see Foster in this role to be honest, he always seems to tackle interesting characters and deliver unorthodox performance that, at the very least, make it memorable. Here, he is given and delivers nothing.
Affleck is on the tanker that is sinking. He's the smart guy who knows everything about the ship, so much that despite the constant bickering between the crew on what to do, he manages to save their lives. This is another performance that feels dialed back. Restrained, if you will. That's the one word to perfectly describe everything about this film. The acting, the story, the budget, the action sequences...all restrained.
To make matters worse, the on land drama is stagnant. The relationship and chemistry between Pine and Holliday Grainger who plays his fiancee is stale. The Finest Hours is old-fashioned filmmaking, to a fault. It takes no chances, isn't strong enough or have enough heart to tug on any emotional strings it tries to play. I can only imagine what the film could have been like with someone with more vision behind the camera. Everything about this film wants to be better, unfortunately it's not.