In The Heart Of The Sea

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA

Director : Ron Howard
Year : 2015
Genre : Action
Rating : ***

While it's premise promised so much, Ron Howards whaling epic 'In The Heart Of The Sea' proves to be little more than a damp squid rather than a mighty leviathan. Telling the harrowing true story of the Essex Nantucket, 'In The Heart Of The Sea' takes us on board the deck of the doomed ship which was capsized after an encounter with a monstrous sperm whale - events which would go on to inspire Herman Melville to write his beloved man versus beast saga 'Moby Dick'.

Reuniting with Howard after his critically acclaimed performance in 'Rush', Chris Hemsworth stars in the movie as the rugged Owen Chase, an ambitious yet volatile whaler whose unstable relationship with his less experienced captain on board the Nantucket proves to be the least of the little ships worries. After hearing tell of numerous pods of whales in a particularly rich area of ocean, the Essex heads right into the stomping grounds of an enormous white monster where chaos and retribution awaits them with a terrible vengeance.

As is the case with any Ron Howard film, 'In The Heart Of The Sea' has its fair share of great moments and these individual scenes are well worth the entrance fee alone. The numerous whaling scenes are as thrilling and as brutal as you would expect while the fabled white colossus is as huge and and as visually impressive as the numerous trailers promised. There are also a number of fine performances on offer with Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and the ever-present Ben Whishaw adding a great amount of dramatic heft to the proceedings. 

However 'In The Heart Of The Sea's biggest drawbacks lies in it's visual aesthetics. Shot predominantly against green screens, the film has a very noticeable artificiality to it and while a great deal of effort has been made to blend the actors and sets with the CGI backgrounds, there is an undeniable fakeness to the movie which really denies any investability in the peril being shown on screen. The same too can be said of the white whale which serves as the driving force of the film. While indeed spectacular to behold, the giant beast lacks the palpable heft of the breaching whale from Ang Lee's 'Life Of Pi' or even the tactility and presence of Spielberg's titular shark from 'Jaws'. It's not good when a rubber robot which didn't work most of the time looks more convincing than a multimillion dollar computer generated effect. That being said, it still looks more real than Tom Hanks' ridiculous hairpiece in 'The Da Vinci Code'!