The Finest Hours

New England has given us two things to cheer for in the last few weeks; Tom Brady being sacked a record number of times in their AFC Championship loss, and this recent historical biopic about a foursome of US Coast Guardsmen tasked with an impossible rescue during a 1951 Nor’easter off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts.

The first thing you need to know about this film is that it is in the vein of inspirational Disney sports stories more than a true action or drama. Think “Invincible”, “Miracle”, “Hoosiers”, “Rudy”, or “The Rookie”. It’s just on a boat in the coastal Atlantic instead of on a field, court or rink. The second thing you need to know about this film is that I’m a sucker for inspirational sports movies.

The characters are laid on pretty thick from the start, complete with sprinkling snowfall and old-time radio background. Chris Pine is Bernie Webber, a shy, salt-of-the-earth Coast Guardsman who follows the rules a bit too rigidly and grew up locally, so he has the accent down pretty good. He meets a girl, and their love blossoms within the first ten minutes on screen. The music, setting, and characters paint a wholesome and Disney picture, which isn’t exactly what I was expecting, but was charmingly refreshing.

A series of catastrophic events create a parallel storyline some 30 miles off the coast, where a crew of oil riggers are fighting for their lives on a sinking freighter, and it’s a race against time in the frigid conditions. Casey Affleck leads them as the engineer who isn’t exactly appreciated by the men, but is looked to as the authority of the group. Affleck plays the role slow and methodically, never really tipping his hand as to what he is really thinking about. It strengthens his character, but also diminishes the humanity behind his eyes. He is a bit too stoic and quiet, and I would have liked to have seen a bit more non-verbal emotion from his character.

Director Craig Gillespie (“The Million Dollar Arm”, “Lars and the Real Girl”) does a fine job capturing the setting, and the chaos on the ocean. The spirit he’s trying to capture is decidedly Post-WWII PG rating. The language is soft and the characters are all tuned down to tolerable levels, even the antagonists, who tend to bark louder than they bite in these types of films anyway.
Disney enlists the screenwriting team behind 2010’s Oscar winning “The Fighter” and it works pretty well. The story is straight forward enough that they just needed to fill dialogue and continuity once establishing the characters, and that is done effectively, if not a bit rushed at the beginning and at the end.

The downside of the film starts with its misguided attempt at a compelling romance/love story. Holliday Grainger (“Cinderella”, “The Borgias”) plays Miriam, a girl who isn’t from the area. I feel like they could have made her a bit more likeable, as she is a little aggressive and abrasive. Her curtness is a great complement to Bernie’s shy, reserved nature, but I was less interested in the love story in the first place anyway.

The supporting roles of Eric Bana and Ben Foster are a bit wasted on their talents if we’re being honest. I am losing faith in Eric Bana after a spiraling decline of role choices, but Ben Foster has a breakout 2016 in store with his portrayal of Lance Armstrong in the upcoming “The Program”. The remaining cast play the part of early 1950’s small fishing-town charmers reasonably well, particularly salty sea dog Graham McTavish as Frank, one of the doomed crewmen.

The ocean is the real antagonist of the film. Reminiscent of “A Perfect Storm”, the lighting on a dark and stormy ocean tends to be the real difficult obstacle to overcome in a film like this, but Gillespie manages to find a way through angles and effects. The bitter cold could have been exploited as an obstacle a bit more adeptly. These men are drenched in icy water for hours and they don’t show a single reaction to the effect. I shudder if I wash my hands and the water’s too cold. Imagine being soaked in it. Anyway, I enjoyed the film for what it was, although it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. If you like Disney feel-good stories, this is right up your alley and will have the perfect amount of suspense. If you’re looking for something heavier, you will likely be disappointed. 6/10.