It opens in pure darkness. The sound of water rushes and crashes above you. You can only hear, there is nothing to be seen. The sound builds, it is tough to listen to. The screen bursts into colour. An island in the distance. Beautiful blue sea leading up to it. The sound continues to build, louder and louder, when a plane bursts into view. It was nothing to be afraid of simply a plane engine flying overhead. From this excellently executed and highly manipulative opening, director Juan Antonio Bayona captures your attention and never slows down to allow you time to breathe.
Bayona’s film is one of the first to really attempt the devastating effect of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that struck the coast of Asia, killing thousands. Clint Eastwood’s 2011 film Hereafter made a small attempt at covering some of the aftermath but it never captured the true effects of the disaster. The Impossible though throws you into the event first hand. Bayona’s use of the camera makes you feel involved as the giant wave sweeps hundreds to their death. It has taken eight years for someone to really dramatise the terror and Bayona doesn’t make it feel too early due to his decision to focus on an unbelievable true story about one family’s attempt to find one another after the water split them apart. Impossible this should be but human spirit proves that even in the worst of times love will make you strong.
It doesn’t take long before the wave hits. Usually in such a disaster movie this event would take place closer to the end and build up to what people will do to survive. Instead here we are given the disaster straight away, meaning the narrative follows the attempt at survival as opposed to planning it. When the water strikes the family are ripped apart. The Mother Maria (played by Naomi Watts) and her eldest son Lucas (Tom Holland) are seen flowing along with the water, striking hidden dangers underneath that had most of the audience squirming in pain. This sequence is fantastic and feels entirely realistic. The camera is right in with them and it is as though you are also being taken along. For ten solid minutes of the film this wave doesn’t stop and when it finally does another comes in the opposite direction. Maria and Lucas grapple anything to hold them in place but each time one is ripped away and the other goes in pursuit. When the wave does finally subside, Maria is in such a bad condition Lucas must quickly mature to do all he can to help his Mother get to safety. From the help of some surviving locals, Lucas succeeds in getting his Mother to a make shift hospital. A deep laceration to her leg, which looks all too real, causes her utter pain and she is rushed through surgery in the hope of keeping her alive. The two believe they are the only two of the family left and Maria begins to break but Lucas stays strong, he is the new man of the family.
Back at the hotel however Maria’s husband, Lucas’ father Henry (Ewan McGregor) has survived and is searching frantically for his family. He also has his two younger sons with him who he found stranded in a tree. He refuses to believe his wife and son are dead and sends his two youngest sons off to high ground whilst he wades through the debris. He catches lift after lift from shelter to shelter, not once giving up hope he will not lose his family. He is aided by a French man who has confirmed in his mind his family have been killed. It is here we receive the stand out emotional moment of the film, when Henry makes a tear jerking call home, promising he will do all he can to find his family. It is no spoiler to say that he goes through the toughest ordeal until he finds them considering the trailer shows them doing so and the fact it is a true story tells us they survived. It isn’t about knowing the ending however, it is about the emotional journey these people took in order to get back to one another, not allowing something so big to break up their happy existence.
The performances in this film are excellent. It really is hard to choose who is the stand out performer. Naomi Watts does excellently considering she spends most of her time acting from a hospital bed. Tom Holland also shines as the immature son who must grow up in double time in order to protect his Mother, something he does really well and Holland brings a mature performance which highlights he has a fantastic future ahead. These two also had the ordeal of filming the ten minute wave sequence and during that the audience feels every bump the two take. McGregor is also on top form as the desperate Father. His stand out scene is the one that hit me the hardest emotionally. I really believed he was in that situation and as did most of the audience as noses were being blown at this point. McGregor is the best here I have seen in a long time.
As well as the acting and directing the sound design also deserves a strong mention as every cut received, every crash of water, and every squeal of pain is felt through the audience’s ears. In an interview Bayona had claimed he wanted to push the use of sound as no one could ever understand what the experience would have sounded like, and most of the time the victims would only have been able to hear the event. The sound, visuals, and acting add to the realism.
It does have a few niggles from me however. For starters it is just far too sad to be a five-star movie, which is a shame considering it is great. There is no hold up in terms of emotional impact and many would have sat tearful for the entire film. It is one you would not want to see more than once. Also before the wave hit I didn’t feel like we had spent enough time with the family. At the end we knew we had been on an emotional roller coaster with them but I would have liked to have seen a little more of them in their happy ways. The opening half is also aimed only at Maria and Lucas’ story, which is fine when we can believe that Henry may be dead but showing he is still alive at the half way point loses its impact when the trailers have already shown him alive. I would like to have seen a little more inter cutting between the two in the first half.
However though these are really minor quibbles because it is a great movie. It is manipulative, like many have suggested, but I feel it needs to be to show how this disaster effected millions across the World. Without being there no one will ever know what it was like and Bayona does his best to bring it to life manipulative or not. Also don’t listen to the people who moan it isn’t entirely true as the family were Spanish and in the film English, because Bayona admits to changing them to English as this was the main language used between survivors. To me this is a fair choice and also allowed for the casting of more commercially known actors so this film can be seen globally.
This film will have you welling up but it is fantastic, even though I don’t think I could put myself through it again.
8.5 / 10
Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland
Directed By: Juan Antonio Bayona
Written By: Sergio G. Sanchez