Ron Howard is an interesting filmmaker. He doesn’t make a bad movie. It is not like all of his films are Oscar winners, like A Beautiful Mind. But, Howard keenly knows how to craft a yarn that will entertain audiences and take them away for a few hours every time they undertake one of his efforts. That is exactly what happens with his latest, In the Heart of the Sea.
In the Heart of the Sea tackles the real-life story of the Essex, the Nantucket-based whaling ship that headed out into the Pacific to bring back the highly coveted whale oil that was fueling the massive growth in our nation. Unfortunately, they ran into a great white whale who had other plans for the men of the Essex. The beast would trash their ship and send them floating at sea, clinging to life for over 90 days.
That tale would entice a young New England author named Herman Melville to pen a little book called Moby Dick. Howard and his team sought to get the story behind the iconic tale and in so doing have given audiences the inspiration for one of the most legendary tales ever told. But where Moby Dick has emotional weight and deep psychological conflict around every turn, In the Heart of the Sea seems a bit rote and two-dimensional.
In the Heart of the Sea begins with Melville (Ben Whishaw, recently seen in Spectre) visiting Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson) at his seaside hotel that he owns with his wife. He is the last living survivor of the Essex and Melville has written repeatedly, seeking an audience with Nickerson — all to no avail. So, he just shows up and with the convincing of Nickerson’s wife, believing it will be good for him to finally tell the tale he’s never told (even to her), whisky is poured and the flashback begins.
This back-and-forth between the experiences of the Essex and Gleeson uttering his tale and how it has clearly emotionally scarred him still after all these years, works wondrously. Often times, going back and forth between time periods using the same characters can be wonky and jarring. Yet, in In The Heart of the Sea, it is an important stroke of storytelling. After all, we want to hear about how Melville came to write one of the greatest American pieces of literature.
Nickerson explains that the story of the Essex is truly the story of two men, Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) and George Pollard (Benjamin Walker). It is a classic tale of silver spoon earned workplace position versus worked for it ascension that was quite prevalent in those days. Pollard is commanding the ship that Chase feels he has earned. When it comes to the mission of the Essex, their goals meet — they don’t come home until they fill their barrels with whale oil. Unfortunately, whale are less and less easy to find and that’s why they end up all the way in the Pacific.
There are many lessons to be gleaned from Howard’s tale. One of the first is it is a baffling and upsetting image to see hundreds and hundreds of whales dotting the landscape. To think that we’ve killed so many of these glorious creatures that so many are gone is deeply distressing. In that vein, it brings us to another interesting dilemma for Howard. Today’s audiences are more likely to pull for the whales than the whalers. So when the great white whale seeks his vengeance, don’t be surprised if cheers erupt from the crowd. Who is the villain in this situation? That’s a tough answer to glean from what we get in the film and thus, amongst other elements, leaves the emotional pull of the audience to be one that is quite confusing.
Another takeaway is that no matter the century, greed is not good. It is greed that forces these men to go further away from home instead of turning back. They meet their fate due to that move and like so many other times in our history (also like The Big Short, which is out now), greed costs lives.
Hemsworth is solid. He is trying to find a movie star career that doesn’t involve him wearing Thor’s cape and who can blame him. The Australian actor is certainly easy on the eyes and matches his cinematic appeal with talent that was wasted earlier this year in Blackhat. Gleeson is always fantastic, as is Whishaw as Melville. But the star here has to be the effects. You have never seen whales on screen as glorious as is witnessed in In the Heart of the Sea.
Howard is a consummate filmmaker who is clearly gifted. In the Heart of the Sea is not his greatest work, but it’s not his worst. Then again, is there a “bad” Howard movie?!
Grade: B-