• Home
  • Meetings
  • Events
  • Blog
  • E-Board
  • Around Boston
NUFEC
.

Carter Sigl on The Finest Hours

1/29/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Why is she is this movie? The world may never know...
Oh, disaster movies. Here’s the thing about disaster movies: you always know exactly what you’re going to get with one. In every one, the disaster happens, and then the characters have to fight for survival for themselves, their families, etc. It’s a very predictable genre with virtually nothing to add at this point- barring some sort of unforeseen and visionary reimagining of the genre. And, dare I say, I think the majority of people who go to see disaster movies enjoy that because they know exactly what they’re paying for. And if The Finest Hours had stayed within those confines, it would just be another mediocre disaster flick. Instead, it tries to be something more and ends up falling flat on its face.

Chris Pine (Star Trek, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) plays Bernard Webber, a member of the United States Coast Guard stationed on Cape Cod. On a cold winter’s day in 1952, a blizzard blows in off the Atlantic Ocean, and two oil tankers, the SS Pendleton and the SS Mercer, are heavily damaged and begin to sink. Bernard is sent out with several comrades from the Coast Guard station (Casey Affleck, Ben Foster) are charged with rescuing the crew of the stricken Mercer. It was one of the most dangerous and daring rescues in the entirety of the Coast Guard’s history (yes, this is one of those ‘based on a true story’ movies). And all the while, Bernard’s fiancé Miriam (Holliday Granger, The Borgias) anxiously hopes he will return home safely.

The Finest Hours has all the standard disaster movie tropes and clichés. There’s peril, there’s the overwhelming power of nature destroying the works of man, more peril, lots of visual suspense, heart-pounding suspense, even more peril… you get the idea. Like I said, it’s a very predictable genre and you always know what you’re going to get.
But where this movie falls flat is the character of Miriam. It’s not that Holliday Granger is a bad actress, but rather that her entire character is completely pointless and superficial to the film. She does absolutely nothing that affects the plot of the movie in any way, and most of her time on screen is spent worrying about her fiancé who we know we get back safely (like I said, all the standard tropes and clichés). In fact, you could completely cut out every scene she is a part of and it would be nearly the exact same movie. In fact, it would probably be a better movie because it would be significantly more streamlined and more action-packed, instead of boring us with unneeded romantic drama- that’s not why people go see disaster movies.

As to why the filmmakers elected to insert such an unnecessary character into this movie, I’m not sure. Perhaps they thought that adding a love interest would help to make the scenes of peril more suspenseful (it didn’t). Perhaps they thought that the internet’s social justice warriors would criticize the movie if it didn’t have any female characters (now they’ll criticize it for having a complete useless female character). Whatever the reason, it drags down what would have otherwise been an unremarkable but passing disaster flick into a slightly worse mediocre disaster flick. I guess the bar’s already pretty low with this one.

Grade: C-
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    AJ Martin
    Andy Robinson
    Anime
    Anthony Formicola
    Anu Gulati
    Arjun Agarwal
    Arzu Martinez
    Ben Garbow
    Brandon Isaacson
    Brian Hamilton
    Carter Sigl
    Dan Simeone
    Discussion
    Elizabeth Johnson Wilson
    Eliza Rosenberry
    Emily Fisler
    Erick Sanchez
    Eric Tatar
    Essays
    Festivals
    Gabrielle Ulubay
    Grace Phalon
    Haley Emerson
    Here's Some Movies
    Ian Wolff
    IFF Boston
    IFFBoston 2015
    Interviews
    Isaac Feldberg
    Kunal Asarsa
    Library
    Lists
    Marguerite Darcy
    Marissa Marchese
    Marli Dorn
    Mary Tobin
    Meghan Murphy
    Mike Muse
    Mitch Macro
    Neel Shah
    Netflix Instant Watch
    Parth Parekh
    Patrick Roos
    Profiles
    Reviews
    Short Films
    Television
    This Week In Movies
    Tyler Rosini

    Want to Write for Us?

    Contact NUFEC at [email protected] if you're interested in writing for this blog!

    Archives

    October 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    April 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.