Directed by:
J.A. BayonaScreenplay:
Sergio G. SánchezCinematography:
Oscar FauraComposer:
Fernando VelázquezCast:
Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Marta Etura, Sönke Möhring, Geraldine Chaplin, Ploy Jindachote, Johan Sundberg (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Maria (Naomi Watts), Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their three sons begin their winter vacation in Thailand, looking forward to a few days in tropical paradise. But on the morning of December 26th, as the family relaxes around the pool after their Christmas festivities the night before, a terrifying roar rises up from the center of the earth. As Maria freezes in fear, a huge wall of black water races across the hotel grounds toward her. Based on a true story, THE IMPOSSIBLE is the unforgettable account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time. But the true-life terror is tempered by the unexpected displays of compassion, courage and simple kindness that Maria and her family encounter during the darkest hours of their lives. Both epic and intimate, devastating and uplifting, THE IMPOSSIBLE is a journey to the core of the human heart. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (12)
As long as it focuses on the civil opening and subsequent perfect audiovisual experience, J.A. Bayona scores with practically every shot. And yet the touching moments in the second half and them missing each other in the rescue center, to my own surprise, ended up passing me by as well. I can only see and acknowledge the strength in The Impossible; I don't actually feel it. That said, it doesn't detract from the amazing performances of the entire family.
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Due to the lack of a longer introduction (Titanic) or continuous flashbacks (127 Hours) that would tell us more about the characters and make us relate to them, I just wasn’t all that emotionally invested in The Impossible. Watching the characters screaming the names of their loved ones and falling into their arms in protracted, dramatically edited scenes didn’t help in this respect. The film is well made and decently acted, but it is rather formulaic, without a powerful message or well-developed psychological basis of the characters. The main musical motif is beautiful, but they didn’t have to use it every ten minutes.
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Bayona puts his previous experience with the horror genre to good use right from the beginning. The disconcerting musical motif and the method of filming (looking up from the depths) transform the tranquil ocean surface into a sinister monster that may come to life in an unguarded moment. The fast-moving, screen-filling wave turns the master of creation into a defenceless being. The characters have nowhere to run, and we don’t either. Thanks to the rumbling sound effects, this is one of the most impressive images of destruction that I have “endured” at the cinema in recent years with respect to the visceral experience that it provides. The 3D glasses were paradoxically unnecessary. ___ After we and the characters are pummelled by the uncontrollable force of nature, the film smoothly transitions into a family melodrama. The demonstration of brilliant special effects alternates with acting that is tenacious in both body and soul. Naomi Watts excels and she suffers the most of all the characters (perhaps because that’s how it happened in reality, or perhaps because she is a woman and this is a melodrama). She is supported superbly and without superfluous words by Tom Holland, who fits his role even better than Ewan McGregor, whose tense emotional state is obviously only a matter of acting. ___ The change in the eldest son’s behaviour shows how drastically such an extreme experience can alter one’s personal hierarchy of values. Material conveniences are suddenly needless, a cola can becomes a valuable treasure and children can no longer rely on the fact that adults will take care of everything necessary. The previous relationship hierarchy has become broken, roles have been reversed. ___ The simple idea of the importance of family cohesion and helping each other is consistently, though with (understandable) tendencies toward melodramatic excess, woven into the narrative, which brings a sense of urgency to the retelling of an eight-year-old story. We have to face the fact that our loved ones will be the only people to help us in the event of an economic (or other) collapse predicted by the sceptics. ___ The greatest tension in the film is created by delaying the moment of the scattered family members’ reunion. We anticipate the re-establishment of the initial harmony due to the logic of the melodrama genre, which Bayona was clearly well aware of and he does everything he can to make us unsure of whether the restoration of the status quo will happen too late. It’s thus not surprising that the emotional highlight of the film is in the form of a masterfully arranged scene of multiple characters passing each other in space. ___ I would venture to say that such an emotionally concise, superbly directed melodrama that makes full use of the privileges of the big screen has not appeared in cinemas at least since Titanic. 80%
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Finally, in this flood of dry and by-the-numbers award catchers, there is a film with heart that you can enjoy without a theoretical analysis. Impressive, intense, brilliantly made (the tsunami scene!) and touching like nothing in many years. Of course, sometimes the story is very clearly modified for the needs of the script (the casual mass reunion reminded me a little to the similarly made-up phone call in Argo). But when it works so well, who cares.
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The director is insanely talented and the story is one of the saddest events of the current era. I knew that this was about to be an emotional ride. It’d be weird if it wasn’t. The story that is based on real-life events might be focusing on only one of many families, but at the same time, it reflects the stories of all the families that stayed there and were affected by the tsunami. The filmmaking is so good that I couldn’t even believe how well the director connected CGI with reality. I must admit that at times, I was just gaping at the screen. Well, not at times, more like for two whole hours. The environment was so real that I felt as if the Spanish author truly had some small village flooded so he could shoot this movie to show each and every one of us just how terrible it all looked when the tsunami came. The cherry on top and the reason I decided to give this movie five stars was the moment when I read that the survivors were watching the movie and they said that the atmosphere couldn’t have been any more accurate. Hats off!
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I'm amazed by the design of the disaster - it's a demonstration of what a good filmmaker can do without an army of computers, only by working with perspective and shooting methods. For me, a completely equal affair with the sinking of the ship in Pi and his life smeared with mud and blood. Otherwise - I'm always wondering if the "real story" is just an alibi to excuse the usual schemes and clichés, or if the filmmaker can draw more than a few notorious lessons from the disaster about the fragility of man and the power of humanity (the last one who really captivated me was Danny Boyle and his rock climbing amputation). For me, in key moments The Impossible slips into uncovered exploitation, from which I soon lost all pleasure (sometimes I hesitated whether the tension was still meant seriously - vomiting of eyelashes and blood, which inadvertently looks like a B-movie horror scene). I want to see something more than just what I know from documentaries and the news, even if it's dressed in a masterful form. But the talk about the stars and the melodramatic passing are as if from a different sea than the realistic wave of dirt that so brutally tore me down against my will at the beginning. For Bayon, I actually have words of respect, but he really should be careful about the innocent submission to the expectations of the "genre". And he should try digging deeper, because this film is actually just "disaster tourism", where everything is solved by harmonious love... and good insurance.
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It hit me very hard. Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age. Perfectly played characters, neither Naomi Watts nor Ewan McGregor are trying to be falsely nice, the kids (like in reality) are sometimes begging for a spanking, but things rarely get out of hand. You can’t tell that when the wave washes everything away that it’s special effects. I don’t understand how they could film this so well without demolishing a hotel and defiling a bit of Thailand coastline. The introductory mayhem is replaced by emotionally draining search for the family split up by the catastrophe. And you know how everybody lies, saying they didn’t cry at the end of Titanic? That applies here for a whole half of the movie. The Impossible is a sincere tear-jerker with a powerful ending. Bayona is a director I will have to look out for in the future. His style turned a regular disaster movie into a breath-taking event where chills run up and down your spine, you feel nauseous and at the end you’re be so relieved that later you will cuddle up tight to your better half, female or male. I’m scared too.
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Neither a pumped up eye-candy blockbuster, nor unnecessarily split emotions made in Spain, but it brings out the good from both. From the very first shots, you can see J.A. Bayona has talent, and the action sequence with the tsunami sweeps you away with its breathtaking visuals and uncompromising authenticity and clarity. The middle and final search part is a bit weaker in terms of both the script and pacing, but it still holds onto the necessary big emotions and, thanks to the capable director's hand, it doesn't slip into sentimentality, and when it does, only marginally, which can be endured. Naomi Watts is the best actress of our time.
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A very, very, very good film. Strong, sensitive, appropriately dramatic and perhaps even authentic (or so it seemed). The performances of the adults and children were top-notch, the director conjured up almost "Malick-esque" moments at times (the meditative music also helped) and I blinked only a few times during the whole 113 minutes to make sure I would avoid missing anything. I really liked the fact that we learned only the bare essentials about the main characters at the beginning, and that the script avoided any flashbacks to the happy past or shots of the grieving relatives somewhere on the other side of the world. It is a pity that the DVD was a bit sloppy, because instead of the announced Czech subtitles and Czech subtitles for the deaf, it offered only the latter, and so I found the messages in square brackets quite distracting. For example, before the wave hit I read [strange sounds...] and then countless times [music...].__P.S. Do not read the content!
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A painful and thorough reconstruction of a great natural catastrophe, delivered mainly through the physical and mental suffering of the protagonists, with whom the viewer feels for until the last second, clinging like a tick to that sliver of hope that is the only thing that helps to keep their sanity in such a situation. I haven't kept my fingers crossed for film characters that much in a long time, and perhaps no film has ever made me cheer not for nature but for helpless and suffering people. When you watch Naomi Watts and see how incredibly real her torn and bruised face looks and every cry of pain feels, you can't help but put your feet up on the sofa and keep watching, even though there is no doubt about the "happy ending". Director Bayona doesn't have to worry about work, because here he squeezed all the juice out of the premise, and judging by the praise from the real people who were there, he squeezed it in a clearly correct and effective way :-) 80%
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A falling page from a book, a lonely lantern, extinguished stars - symbols that signify separation and death, but what always dies last is hope. Even impossible things can become real if we keep hoping. The Impossible is a film that draws on a powerful story based on a true event, and that's why it has such an impact on the audience's emotions. The cast was amazing, especially Naomi Watts and Tom Holland's portrayal of little Lucas. The most breathtaking scenes were the arrival of the tsunami and the dream sequence, but many other scenes made a strong impression on me as well. I must also praise the beautiful music, which perfectly underscored the scenes in terms of emotion. In short, a very solid film, which is not perfect, at times a bit more sentimental and gives the viewer an idea of how it will end, but nevertheless I was still interested and moved, which is the main thing
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Juan Antonio Bayona has mainly a great horror film "The Orphanage", which is one of the best horror films of Spanish origin, but not only that. This Spaniard showed us that it can still be done without blood or found footage. However, in the film "The Impossible", he took a different approach and decided to make a film based on true events. On the other hand, it must be said that in terms of tension and fear, this film is at a really high level. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2013/02/nic-nas-nerozdeli-2012-70.html
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