In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

Directed by: Ron Howard
Country: USA

Movie Review: Ron Howard’s new blockbuster, “In The Heart of The Sea”, equipped with the conventional strategies and artifacts that characterize Hollywood for the better and for the worst, brings us the tragedy involving the Essex, an American whaleship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, sunk in 1820 by the invincible power and resilient desire of vengeance of a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean. Charles Leavitt’s script, drinking from the novel "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick, starts conveying the urgency of the celebrated writer, Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw), in knowing the facts that led to the wreck of Essex, told by the last survivor of its crew, Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), who at the time was only 14 when he was accepted as a cabin boy. Reluctantly, the still tormented and alcoholic, Thomas, agrees to tell the whole story in exchange of money, persuaded by his tactful wife. His recollections would become the inspiration for the fictional ‘Moby Dick’, an astoundingly descriptive classic book whose readers are more likely to classify this cinematic experience as an overambitious fiasco since its storytelling and imagery were insufficient to create an adventure of the same size of the whale it displays. According to the storyteller, this is a story of two men: Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker), who relies on his family name to adopt a superior attitude, and his first officer, Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth), a brave sailor who got his feelings hurt when he was denied the position of captain to embark this newly arrived ship. As expected, and before the violent attack by the monstrous whale that leaves the crew drifting at sea for 90 days on small boats, there’s a storm that slightly debilitates the ship and increases the antagonism between the two main leaders. Fairly acceptable until this moment, the film starts abruptly to sink more and more into the blurry waters of sluggishness and sentimental manipulation, without delivering truly exciting moments or adding relevant elements to pull us out of its insipid drama. Mr. Howard’s ample career, fluctuating between hits (“Frost/Nixon”, “Rush”) and misses (“Da Vinci Code”, “The Dilemma”), goes through another setback with this ocean-going misadventure. While the ambitions are wide, the results are embarrassingly narrow.