Walt Disney Studios has found quite a nice niche outside of their stable of franchises (Star Wars, Marvel movies), animation flicks (from Disney Animation and Pixar) and that is the live action inspiring true story. Just in the last couple of years, they’ve given us McFarland, USA, Million Dollar Arm and Saving Mr. Banks. Their latest, The Finest Hours, is quite different in its story center, but equally as compelling — perhaps even more so.
Chris Pine (Star Trek Beyond) stars as real life Coast Guard leader Bernie Webber, who spearheads a 1952 rescue with three other seamen to save the lives of over two dozen who lie desperately waiting for help on a split in half oil tanker that is slowly, but surely, sinking.
Meanwhile, Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck), is a reluctant leader aboard the sinking vessel, who is doing everything he can to keep that ship afloat. Sybert and Webber’s fate collided in real life and made for what history would call the greatest Coast Guard sea rescue in history.
The Finest Hours is at its best when it focuses on that aspect of the story. There is also another element, the budding romance between Webber and Miriam (Holiday Grainger), which begins when the two go on a double date and seem to be heading towards a lifelong romance when he heads out to sea to answer the call of an oil tanker with two dozen souls aboard.
Pine and his crew must get in their wooden rescue craft and first make their way through Cape Cod’s Chatham Bars – a slice of waterway that leads to the ocean that in a storm, is engulfed in some of the worst waves you’ll ever see. Put it this way, no ship has ever made it through in such conditions.
So, that’s the first of many challenges Webber and his crew (which includes a stellar turn by Ben Foster) encounter that truly keep this film a heart-pounder that will have you covering your eyes on occasion by the thrills that are almost too much to watch.
Like so many stories with gads of thrilling elements, the key to the overall film’s success is how they handle the emotional ebb and flows of the storytelling. Sadly, The Finest Hours tends to slow too much during emotional exposition during the thrilling rescue that feel a bit of a distraction. Instead of focusing on the romance and how Miriam is coping with her first time with her fiancé at sea when he might not come back, perhaps we could get a little more background on Affleck’s Sybert.
In the hands of the uber-talented sibling of Ben Affleck, he makes his scenes in The Finest Hours some of the most gripping of the film. We know this ship is doomed, yet in the hands of Affleck, we feel the sense of hope that he instills on his crew. The captain and officers may have washed away to sea with the front half of the ship, but the desire to live remains with Sybert and his crew, a fact brought to full emotional power by Affleck in yet another stunning turn.
Pine is solid. He is a unique brand of handsome meet heroic that is a galaxy away from the role of Captain Kirk that made him a star. He masters his Massachusetts accent and brings this character to life as someone who follows the rules to the “T,” and yet knows when lives are on line, to trust his gut instinct — despite what his superiors may say. Pine and Grainger are fantastic together, and they do as much with what they are given as possible.
Director Craig Gillespie (Million Dollar Arm) — That Disney real life wing of the studio keeps it in house!) has a much larger canvas to paint on with The Finest Hours than he ever has in his career and handles it with grace. Most of the set-at-sea scenes are mind-dropping in terms of the special effects that went into achieving them, as well as the harrowing nature of the real life actors being exposed to such intense liquid attacks to have it feel like a true Nor’easter.
Also, The Finest Hours is in 3D and in this case it is not a distraction and for that Gillespie should also be lauded. For a film with such a need for emotional pull, the visual never get in the way and that may be the finest thing about The Finest Hours.
Grade: B