Summery: A recounting of a New England whaling ship’s sinking by a giant whale in 1820, an experience that later inspired the great novel Moby-Dick (taken from IMDb)
Rating: 12A
Genre: Action, Adventure, Biography
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson
Review: This film has been on my radar for quite some time – I love Ron Howard’s movies and I think they’re shot so beautifully (see my review of Rush, here) and the trailer looked phenomenal so I finally sat down to watch it and my gosh, I was not disappointed. Told from the point of view of the young ships boy, Tom Nickerson, In the heart of the Sea is a recounted story of the 1820’s whaling ship, The Essex and the gigantic whale that sunk it and left it’s crew abandoned and fighting for survival in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The whale who inspired to classic novel, Moby-Dick (fun fact: I live in Essex and there’s a pub called Moby-Dick, after the whale who sunk the Essex ship)
I love films abut some sort of disaster – that sounds morbid, but I do. Plane wrecks, ship wrecks, gigantic killer wasps – anything like that and I’m down (except for the wasps, obviously), so In the Heart of the Sea was right up my street in terms of plot. It was a very visually stunning film to watch – the setting and the graphics were outstanding and I was super duper impressed. It had a nice gradual build up to the disaster itself – it reminded me a little bit of Jaws actually, with this giant whale tormenting them and ultimately destroying their ship and putting their lives at risk. The shots of the whales were captivating. Gross… but captivating. Like, gross enough for me to nearly puke.
The case were great in this film and they had a real good mix of actors, Chris Hemsworth (for obvious reasons) and Cillian Murphy, who I’m a big fan of. It was also cool to see Harry Potter’s, Tom Riddle make an appearance! I think this was a beautifully filmed remake of a very old classic for the current generation. They’ve made it gripping and tense, funny and emotional with insane CGI effects worthy of awards. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this film and loved the storytelling element of it with the author visiting the last remaining crew member of The Essex to gather the facts for what would go on to become a classic of literature.
