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T O P I C R E V I E W
BaftaBaby
Posted - 12/26/2012 : 18:06:28 I wish there were an awards category called Best Little Gems. Writer/director combo Sergio G. S�nchez and Juan Antonio Bayona have certainly produced a contender.
It's not any one specific element that qualifies their version of this reportedly true story. In 2004 Spaniards Maria and Enrique Belon took their three young sons to a Thailand beach resort to celebrate Christmas.
Instead of happy holidaymakers they became statistics in the aftermath of what has been calculated the sixth deadliest natural disaster in human history - namely the devastating underwater earthquake and consequent tsunami which claimed an estimated 280,000 lives.
If you didn't watch the literally incredible news footage over the days and weeks of the event, you can read about it online and in print. What you won't get from those accounts is what the waters uncovered in human terms.
Though they brilliantly craft the horror of the waves, the filmmakers are far more interested in people than science. And, to that end, they share with us a visceral tsunami.
Yes, on some level it's a disaster movie. Why are we so fascinated by disaster. Our fiction for centuries is filled with the worst that can happen. If nothing else, it is because however much we shore up our insecurities with the sandbags of hope, we constantly question our personal vulnerabilities and those of our species and our planet home.
Depite Maria Belon's assertions that The Impossible happened, I've read some folks' doubts that the Belon's story has been embellished, even possibly completely made up. You know, in the end, who cares?
Bavona and his team both behind and in front of the cameras have brought to our attention one of the primary responsibilities of story-telling. At a time of the year when many cultures address their fears of the darkness with tales of hope, The Impossible pushes those boundaries to hand us the gift of unity.
That's why it doesn't matter that Englishwoman Naomi Watts and Scotsman Ewan McGregor play anglo versions of the Spaniards at the film's heart. We're all fiscally savvy enough to know the ways of the box office, if not of the world.
What remains with us - as the scars of the disaster inevitably remain with those who survived - are images of how people help each other. We may struggle alone against the tide, we may grieve in the privacy of our hearts, but if we have a shred left of connection, we will reach out to soothe the pain of others - whether we know them or not.
Of course I could ooh and aah about the remarkable special effects - but films which rely primarily on those to the detriment of human stories feed only the worst of our cultural appetites, leaving us as unfulfilled as a meal of potato chips.
It's the feast of humanity we crave. Happily both McGregor and Watts serve it liberally, and are surrounded by truthful performances from a supporting cast including the three boys who play their children.
