Plot
The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.
Release Year: 2016
Rating: 6.9/10 (186 voted)
Critic's Score: 50/100
Director: Craig Gillespie
Stars: Chris Pine, Holliday Grainger, Casey Affleck
Storyline
In February of 1952, one of the worst storms to ever hit the East Coast struck New England, damaging an oil tanker off the coast of Cape Cod and literally ripping it in half. On a small lifeboat faced with frigid temperatures and 70-foot high waves, four members of the Coast Guard set out to rescue the more than 30 stranded sailors trapped aboard the rapidly-sinking vessel.
Writers: Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy
Cast: Chris Pine -
Bernie Webber
Holliday Grainger -
Miriam
Casey Affleck -
Ray Sybert
Ben Foster -
Richard Livesey
Kyle Gallner -
Andy Fitzgerald
Eric Bana -
Daniel Cluff
Rachel Brosnahan -
Bea Hansen
Graham McTavish -
Frank Fauteux
John Magaro -
Ervin Maske
Michael Raymond-James -
Abraham Benrubi -
Tiny Myers
Josh Stewart -
Tchuda Southerland
Keiynan Lonsdale -
Eldon Hanan
Benjamin Koldyke -
Sam
John Ortiz -
Seaman Wallace Quirey
Trivia:
Both Casey Affleck and Josh Stewart appeared together in Interstellar (2014). Although Stewart did not appear onscreen, as he voiced the robot character CASE. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating:
"The Finest Hours" is based on the true story of the miraculous
Pendleton rescue of 1952 – an event still considered the greatest small
boat rescue in the history of the Coast Guard. Though bravery
undoubtedly surfaced throughout the real experience, here, sheer luck
appears to outweigh intrepidity, ignoring all opportunities to display
undaunted heroism in its place. This is a major mistake for any
picture, but especially so in a disaster movie.
Every character thrust into the middle of insurmountable danger
radiates overwhelming timidity, uncertainty, and even, on occasion,
idiocy. "They'll listen to you!" Graham McTavish's Frank Fauteux
blazons to Casey Affleck's soft-spoken Ray Sybert. But why would they?
Confidence and conviction never emerge from any of the seagoing
protagonists, causing frustration and annoyance for the viewer. No
matter how spectacular the setting of Mother Nature's wrath upon the
miniscule entities invading her waters, no entertainment can be derived
from witnessing jellyfish tossed about in a sea of skepticism.
In the winter of 1951, shy Coast Guardsman Bernie Webber (Chris Pine)
meets Miriam (Holliday Grainger) on a blind date - and the two quickly
fall in love. The following year, the assertive young girl asks Bernie
to marry her, but his shaken courage from an earlier rescue mission
that resulted in tragedy affords him marked hesitancy. When a violent
storm splits two massive oil tankers in half, Webber is given a chance
to regain his resolve. Intent on saving the survivors of the SS
Pendleton, the determined coxswain and his crew of three sailors,
Engineman Andrew Fitzgerald (Kyle Gallner) and seamen Richard Livesey
(Ben Foster) and Ervin Maske (John Magaro), must conquer monumental
obstacles to reach the imperiled vessel.
"The Finest Hours" starts right in with the character development,
forgetting almost immediately that it's supposed to be a disaster
movie. And a January disaster movie at that. Too much attention is
given to Webber's personal life and in all the wrong areas; instead of
focusing on the tragic events that lead to his shattered confidence
asea, a formulaic romance is initiated, where a cherub-faced redhead
exhibits enough control and pluck to make Pine's lead just that much
more inadequate.
This might not have been an unwanted contrast were it not for the
addition of several other fainthearted, shy, ineffectual players.
Affleck's Sybert and even Eric Bana's officer-in-charge Daniel Cluff
are mousy, incompetent, and permanently unsure, incapable of producing
a hint of leadership or purposefulness. There's not a respectable
character in the entire picture, nor is there a genuinely salty tar
(save for Graham McTavish) among them. The various roles exhibit
stupidity more routinely than bravery, which is problematic for a film
that should, at the very least, disguise stupidity as bravery. "The
Finest Hours" is entirely devoid of heroism; luck, insubordination, and
cinematic segues prove to be solutions to predicaments rather than the
typical common sense or grit.
"The Finest Hours" wants to be more than just a disaster film, but it
doesn't know how to achieve that. In fact, it doesn't really know how
to pose as a disaster film, either. Every time a suspenseful scenario
is orchestrated, the editing and dialogue and actions manage to stymie
the anticipation. There's no tension or fearfulness or believable
peril. Perhaps this is because it's a Disney production, in which blood
and death must be at an absolute minimum. But likely it's because
director Craig Gillespie just doesn't know what to do with the
screenplay, which is crafted so generically and so ploddingly that the
special effects of crashing waves and suffocating waters are unable to
cope with the slow pacing and pitiful personas. Some of it is so bad
it's almost hilarious – but unfortunately, it never goes far enough to
be truly funny in its artistic dreadfulness. Instead, it's mostly just
unwatchable.
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