The Finest Hours Gives You Two Fine Hours

Release Date：Jan/29/2016
Genre：Action/Drama/History/Thriller
Director：Craig Gillespie
Cast：Chris Pine、Eric Bana

Viola's Rating：6.7

Walt Disney Pictures released their latest live-action feature film The Finest Hours on Jan. 29 after the mediocre Tomorrowland last year.

This historical action drama thriller, which based on American author Casey Sherman’s novel The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue, tells a “Titanic meets The Day After Tomorrow” story.

During a blizzard in 1952, a four-people Coast Guard squad led by Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) makes an adventurous rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers is destroyed.

In order to inform the audiences how Webber’s wife played an important role in his life, the film doesn’t set out on a voyage but the love story between Bernie and Miriam. With similar elements to Titanic like romance between the main characters, ship that breaks into half and their extraordinary true story characteristic, The Finest Hours focuses more on the significant rescue mission itself.

As Dennis Quaid’s character goes for his son in The Day After Tomorrow, Bernie’s reaching out to strangers in a blustery stormy night is not only bold but also noble. And when the crews on the oil tanker look out to the sea from the broken part, it reminds moviegoers about the scene in The Day After Tomorrow when a tornado takes half of the building away.

Just like most pictures based on true stories, The Finest Hours provides photos of the counterparts. Although the actors and actress are not excellent likeness as the ones we see in Argo, you can still tell how casting Mindy Marin put effort in her job.

Besides, in order to drag the audiences back to 1950s, even before the feature film begins, the classic blue Disney New Swanstone Castle opening with firework was turned into a quiet brown castle. Also, the soundtrack helps building this revival vibe from the very beginning, the sea shanty “Haul Away Joe” the squad sing on their rescue mission to the song played when the credits rolling.

However, The Finest Hours only demonstrates exactly what happened in 1952.  Besides the half ship and terrible weather condition which we already knew before going to the theater, there’s no climax added to the motion picture. Watching The Finest Hours does help us to understand the heroic deed of this Coast Guard squad, but how the movie conveys it is not powerful enough to move the audiences to burst into tears.

The Finest Hours won’t give you an unforgettable amazing film watching experience, but it not only gets you understand the most daring sea rescue in US history, but also provides you two fine hours.