Movie review-The Impossible

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

Just back from seeing the new release "The Impossible". This movie is about a topic that is close to home for a few of our posters--A family's ordeal in the 2004 Thailand tsunami. Starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, the true story revolves around the couple and their three sons who were vacationing in Thailand for Christmas of 2004 when the tsunami hit. Be sure to take plenty of tissues with you, as the movie is filled with many tear inducing moments. Overall though, it is a positive story about the strength and perseverance of parents under unbelievable adversity in order to ensure the safety of their loved ones.

I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a more "substantial" movie during this holiday season.

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

I thought this would get at least a comment from Oz or Firecat.. no one?

[TotallyOz]

Sorry, I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off as it is Christmas Eve and in 7 minutes Christmas Day. I have been busy cooking up a storm.

This is not a movie I can see. I was supposed to be in Phuket during that time and I have many friends that lost loved ones in it. The 2 boys that live with me in Thailand told me they did not want to see it either. I guess for us, it just brings up really bad memories.

I have also not seen many movies that were based on Sept 11. I tend to stay away from those kinds of movies.

This movie looks beautiful well made. I am glad it is doing well.

The movie I am waiting for is Les Mis! Can't wait.

[Lucky]

"Overall though, it is a positive story about the strength and perseverance of parents under unbelievable adversity in order to ensure the safety of their loved ones."

It is that.

But I agree that the Thai guys should not see it. Not because it might be too traumatizing, but because it takes a major event in their country and makes it about rich white people. The Thais are pretty much kept in the background. The movie isn't so much about the tsunami as it is about this family. I didn't have any reason to care about them over anyone else who suffered. I would rather have seen a more general movie about the tsunami.

It does highlight the problem of being in a foreign country, unable to speak the language, and needing serious help

[Lucky]

The movie is based upon the survival of a real family, a Hispanic family, But of course they are white in the movie.

The NY Times review says it better than I did:

Survivors are also witnesses, and “The Impossible” shows us, through the eyes of one unbelievably lucky family, some terrible things, including mangled bodies and parents in despair. But as Maria and Henry’s ordeal unfolds, the film’s focus starts to feel distressingly narrow. Virtually everyone shown suffering after the tsunami is a European, Australian or American tourist, and the fact that the vast majority of the dead, injured and displaced were Asian never really registers. At one point Maria and Lucas are cared for by residents of a small village and later they are helped by Thai doctors, but these acts of selfless generosity are treated like services to which wealthy Western travelers are entitled. And the terrible effects of the tsunami on the local population are barely acknowledged.

This is not to dismiss the real anguish of people like the family on whose miraculous survival Mr. Bayona’s movie is based, nor to scold the director for making this movie instead of another. But there is a troubling complacency and a lack of compassion in “The Impossible,” which is less an examination of mass destruction than the tale of a spoiled holiday. You could also say that it is a movie about the consequences of global inequality, but unfortunately only by accident.