"The Impossible" by J.A. Bayona - movie review

The movies with natural disasters have long been an integral part of the Hollywood arsenal, which usually provides solid revenue with "Twister", The Perfect Storm, Dante's Peak, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012. All of these films represent the mass destruction in more generally, and avoid accentuating human sacrifices to prevent more sensitive viewers from returning already absorbed quantities of popcorn, nachos, and other nutritional supplements without which modern homo sapiens does not dare to spend 2 hours in the movie theater (probably worried about starving). European cinema, however, has never been worried about displaying more grim pictures on the screen, and that's why it has hardly reached the same boxing proportions as the Hollywood premieres. European countries compensate for the lack of audible global earnings with a strong patriotic feeling, which is able to bring to the home of the movie a larger box office than that of films like "Avatar", which I suppose have heard and the bushmen in Africa. Before five years "The Upside" reported a total of $ 166 million in native France, and a year later it is apparently the order of "The Impossible" to achieve something like this in Spain because with nearly 53 million, the film can boast that it has passed another a famous work by James Cameron - Titanic for some period.

If someone casts only a superficial glance at the materials for "The Impossible" , then it will probably immediately add it to the Hollywood movies with natural upheavals. In fact, the film is quite different from them for a number of reasons. First of all, we must note that "The Impossible" is inspired by the true story of a Spanish family surviving the horror of the most deadly tsunami in human history that hit the coasts of Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka in 2004, at least 230,000 people. Just for comparison, the atomic bomb launched by Americans at the end of World War II takes between 90,000 and 140,000 lives. The young Spanish director, J.A. Bayona, is given the task of telling this extremely dramatic family story against the backdrop of the massive destruction of the tsunami. Unlike his Hollywood colleagues, he takes on an extremely realistic path and creates a picture that can easily be compared to "Saving Private Ryan" in terms of sacrifices, blood and human parts that are present in a large body of footage. This should serve as a warning to the more sensitive, who may even want to come out at any given time. Technically, the film has been sophisticated. Special attention is paid to the overall vision, and individual frames are straight to hang them in a frame on the wall. It is interesting to see how much this is due to Bayon or Oscar Faura, who has worked as a operator in "The Machinist" with Christian Bale and Agora (another Spanish production with English-language actors that has gone wild on home screens). Probably the answer will be given to us with the next film of the young Spanish director, who is too soon to be swallowed by Hollywood producers. I still have not watched his last movie "A Monster Calls"

Excellent work has also been done by the Sound Effects team, which play a central role in the overall impact of history. In moments after the start of a wave, the screen darkens and viewers are left only under the influence of sounds to experience the feelings of the main characters. While in American films all kinds of effects (computer, sound, etc.) are aimed at astonishing the viewer and justifying the price of the ticket, the effects "The Impossible" serves only as an aid to telling a strong human drama. And for this purpose, strong actors are needed, who are not afraid to be subjected simultaneously to the crushing physical and psychological parameters of the role. Serious roles are not alien to Naomi Watts, and her performance in "The Impossible" is no exception to the high standards inherent to the actress. Watts manages to offer a physically and psychologically intense personification of a seemingly frightening woman who quickly forgets about her fears, and becomes adolescent mother ready for everything to do. The story tells Maria (Watts) to be taken from the element in one direction with her eldest son, Lucas. In the role of Lucas, he enters debutant Tom Holland, who is acting as equal to his highly respected screen partner, and undoubtedly offers more than his age-old performance. The same can not be said for Ewan McGregor, who seems to be part of the production because he was nearby and did not have a better job to do at that time. "The Impossible" holds a number of criticisms because of the substitution of the Spanish identity of the central characters with the presence of English-language popular actors and the lack of representation of the drama of the local population. If we ignore the real events, the film is working on the idea of offering us an extremely busy psychic catastrophic drama about the incredible fate of a 5-member family.

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