In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
Directed by Ron Howard
In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex is assaulted by something no one could believe—a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance.
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In The Heart Of The Sea would make for a great double feature with 2003's Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, though it's probably best to watch the more recent film first.
A well-intentioned cross between the nautical drama of “Master and Commander” and the against-all-odds survival elements of “Unbroken,” “In the Heart of the Sea” is an instantly forgettable movie that completely wastes the talents of Howard and his cast.
But anyone hoping for a Master and Commander style voyage into nautical history, with decks you can feel beneath your feet and rotting fish overwhelming the sinuses, will be disappointed.
And so the scene is set for a Mutiny On The Bounty-style clash of wills, or a Master And Commander-style clash of styles, that will propel the human side of the story.
While Ang Lee’s Life of Pi conjured a convincing menagerie of digital seabound beasts (from tigers to whales and more), Howard struggles to invest his quasi-mythical creature with the physicality that defined Jaws (or, for that matter, the killer-whale romp Orca ).
Its most glaring problem, though, is that "In the Heart of the Sea" just doesn't feel necessary in the wake of other, better maritime disaster movies ranging from "The Perfect Storm" and "Cast Away" to more recent entries like "Life of Pi," "All Is Lost" and "Unbroken."
Ron Howard hoped that more people would come out to see the film now as opposed to in early spring, since some other oceanic adventure films have seen success around this time ( Life of Pi , for example).
" In the Heart of the Sea " is a thrilling, sea-faring whale of an adventure that, like "Rush" before it, shows a level of technical mastery beyond what we normally see out of the workmanlike Howard.
Reunited with poster boy Chris Hemsworth, the latest flavor of fan-magazine beefcake fodder and blank-faced star of the director’s 2013 flop Rush, Mr. Howard has pieced together a briny seafaring epic about the sinking of a whaling vessel called the Essex in 1820 by an angry whale that inspired Herman Melville’s saltwater classic Moby Dick.
Director Ron Howard gave us a thrilling experience with another tale of two men pitted against one another in a grueling career with 2013's "Rush," but his highly touted adaptation of the true story that inspired 'Moby Dick' (adapted from Nathaniel Philbrick's book by Charles Leavitt ("K-PAX," "Blood Diamond")) is often visually and narratively incoherent.
Howard’s last film (“ Rush ”) was a very good one, making “In The Heart Of The Sea” all the more puzzling.
Having captured the world of Formula One racing with such a potent sense of stylistic adrenaline in “Rush,” Howard tries in vain to do something similar for his maritime milieu here, even retaining the same excellent d.p., Anthony Dod Mantle, and the crack editing team of Mike Hill and Dan Hanley.
(He comes off better in Howard’s far superior “Rush.”)
Director Ron Howard gave us a thrilling experience with another tale of two men pitted against one another in a grueling career with 2013's "Rush," but his highly touted adaptation of the true story that inspired 'Moby Dick' (adapted from Nathaniel Philbrick's book by Charles Leavitt ("K-PAX," "Blood Diamond")) is often visually and narratively incoherent.
Based on Nathaniel Philbrick's book "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex," the script by Charles Leavitt ("Blood Diamond") doesn't go especially deep.
Working from a screenplay by Charles Leavitt (“Blood Diamond”) that was based on a nonfiction book by Nathaniel Philbrick, Howard aims for old-school thrills that he only intermittently delivers.
Howard (working from a script by Blood Diamond writer Charles Leavitt) never quite manages to weave these strands together.
Under Howard’s sturdy but unflashy command, and with a script by Blood Diamond’s Charles Leavitt (no Melville, he), the 3D camera whisks us to the early 19th century, when whale oil was essential for lighting cities and adventurers like Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) were eager to hunt for it.
Blame Charles Leavitt (“Blood Diamond”), the film’s writerley scenarist who wanly adapts Philbrick’s thrilling chronicle of the 1821 incident in which a Nantucket-based ship was sunk by a revenge-minded whale.
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