The Impossible

The Impossible.

Based on the 2004 Tsunami, this is a movie surrounding the true story of one families survival of one of the worst natural disasters in the worlds history. I'd been looking forward to seeing this since the trailers began surfacing and it wasn't a dissapointment. I'd heard from people that it wasn't all that good but one thing I've always stood by when it comes to movies is ignore everything you hear and go make your own judgement. I was blown away with this movie.

It begins on Christmas Eve as the family fly in to Thailand to spend the holidays. What I first noticed and what became somewhat of a theme was the way water and the ocean was incorporated into the telling of the story - from the sounds of the waves, to the long shots of the ocean, the calmness as families played on the beach. It reminded me of the way Ron Howard used fire to tell the story in 'Backdraft' - using the imagery of water in a sense as a character to drive the story.

Going in you know what the movie is about, so there's a constant sense of foreboding as you wait for the Tsunami to hit. The action scenes of the waves and the flooding aren't actually that long compared to the length of the movie, yet their impact leaves you agape. The way it was filmed was spectacular, better than any disaster movie I've seen, it's real, almost too real and when you remind yourself this really happened, you feel at a loss as to how people coped even being in that situation never mind watching a cinematic renactment of events.

The debris, the flood scenes, it simply brims with everything, the underwater shots, the sounds, the acting - it all culminates into some spectacular fifteen minutes of film. These days, it's not hard to spot the CGI, even if FX are getting more sophisticated, sometimes it's just too evident that it's fake. But everything here blended so well that you felt as if the scenes were taken right from the actual event.

What follows is a truly phenomenal tale of human spirit and faith in fate. A family torn apart by this natural diaster, (the mother, Maria and oldest boy Lucas are together and seperated from the father Henry and two youngest boys Thomas and Simon) that through a series of events find each other once more.

If people didn't like this movie I can only imagine it's because the main action is kept to those opening scenes where the Tsunami hits. This is not a disaster movie - the filmmakers did not set out to make that kind of story. This is a look into a peice of history along with the telling of an extraoridinary story.

The acting is very good - Naomi Watts in the flood scene is especially good but the actor who stole the whole story for me was Tom Holland who played the oldest son Lucas. He's defintely an actor to watch for in the future - he threw himself into the role and portrayed a truly wonderful individual, funny, serious, naieve, brave, scared. He reminded me to look at and in some ways to watch as a young Jamie Bell. There was something fresh and alive about his acting ability and he really stuck his teeth into what was expected of him.

If, like me, you get emotional at the tiniest hint of angst and drama then take tissues. I was overwhelmed and felt a lump growing simply from the waves crashing through the buildings. Of course every highly emotionally charged movie comes with equally emotionally engaging soundtrack and this film packed a punch. It was clever, using the sounds of the water and waves to tell the action scenes but charging the dramatic, emotional moments with orchestral accompaniments that you knew by the end would have you reaching for the hankies. There came a moment where you were getting bombarded with emotional moments, bang, bang, bag and I thought to myself 'I don't think I can take any more'.

You should see this movie if you like the telling of a true story, if you like drama, action and emotionally charged plot. You should see this movie simply to remind yourself how lucky you are not to have lived through such a terrible and devastating event. Don't go to see this move thinking it's the latest epic action packed disaster movie. This is far from that genre.

It's brutal in it's emo punches and there are some very realistic injuries that have you squirming and leave you squeamish. But it also leaves you with the satisfaction of knowing even in the worst circumstances, the most terrifying and horriffic events caused by nature, that the human spirit and fate also have a part to play in these lives we live on this Earth. Whether you believe in fate or miracles or merely good luck , sometimes the impossible occurs.