The Impossible is flat-out the best movie of 2012. I went into the movie thinking it would be one of the ten best of 2012, but I didn’t think it would crack the top five, let alone take over The Dark Knight Rises. As I’ve stated many times, a great movie has an advantage over other great movies if it is based on a true story. Not “inspired by a true story” or “based upon true events” but “based on a true story.” A great movie can lose a lot in my book if it turns out that much factual information is exaggerated or incorrect. Remember The Titans went from being in my all-time top 25 to fall out of the top 150 because of how factually incorrect it had been. Rather than winning the state championship on the game’s final play, as depicted in the movie, the TC Williams Titans won that game handily 27-0. And while I haven’t sought out any discrepancies between what was shown in The Impossible and what happened, I haven’t heard anybody say that the events were untrue.

This review is going to be short. I don’t think there is any insight I can offer. This story is about a family of five vacationing during the holiday season in Thailand when the massive tsunami that wiped out a good part of southeast Asia ripped through the resort they were staying at. The gigantic pounding waves scatter the family. The imagery alone makes you feel a little uneasy in your seat. Whether it was the destructive forces that engulfed the palm trees, the automobiles, and the people, the cuts, bruises, and gashes covering the bodies of those hit, or the piles of dead bodies that are seen piled on top of one another outside of the makeshift hospitals in the region, the visuals were enough to make you shift uncomfortably in your seat. Then director Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage) uses his characters to show one individual story. Because the acting is top-notch, we can feel the sadness, despair, hope, and joy that the characters experience when they are experiencing it.

Noami Watts (The Ring, King Kong) is on the top of her game as Maria, wife of Henry (Ewan McGregor – Beginners, The Ghost Writer) and mother of boys Lucas (Tom Holland), Samuel, and Thomas. Her body’s physical toll is worth more than the other characters. And though it gets to the point where she is unable to care for herself, her greatest worries and fears are of her family. While the performance of Watts is outstanding (as is the performance of McGregor), the movie’s real star is Lucas. Lucas is Maria and Henry’s oldest son (probably about 13). While he seems a selfish, self-centered pre-teen at the start of the movie, he is quickly forced into the role of caregiver and voice of reason. He is a great example of doing what you must do when forced to do so. Just as the first wave of the tsunami wipes away the resort the family was staying at, so does it wipe away Lucas’s innocence and youth.

The movie that is most comparable to me is 2010’s 127 Hours. While that movie was James Franco on screen by himself for 90 minutes, it was similar in that we are reminded that we are mere mortals compared to the incredible forces of nature. It also reaffirms the amazing will humans have to survive. Whether it was Aaron Ralston realizing he hadn’t lived his life the right way and that there was so much more he wanted to accomplish in 127 Hours or Maria not wanting her children to grow up without their mother in The Impossible, humans have the ability to overcome the direst of circumstances. The movies were also comparable in that they both effectively incorporated music. The music in The Impossible wasn’t as effective as in 127 Hours, but it was still an effective part of the storytelling.

Plot 9.5/10
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 10/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing  8.5/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 9.5/10
Hook and Reel 9.5/10
Universal Relevance 9.5/10
93%

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