MOVIE REVIEW – IN THE HEART OF THE SEA

RON HOWARD + SEA CREATURE, YET NOT AS GOOD AS SPLASH

In the Heart of the Sea

Review by Paul Preston

In 1750, Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity by briefly harnessing power from lightning. But it wasn’t until the mid- to late 1800s that Thomas Edison was able to transmit electrical power to homes via a cable. In between then was a time where it really, really sucked to be a whale.

According to “In the Heart of the Sea”, based on the book “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex” (too long for a marquee), whale oil in the early 1800s was like crude oil today – a precious commodity from which old white men are trying to become filthy rich. Whale oil lit lamps and illuminated villages in the 1820s and expeditions would set forth to bring home as much of the product as possible, danger be damned.

The danger on board The Essex starts with a clash of wills between Captain Pollard (Benjamin Walker), an entitled seamen, and first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth), who feels he has earned the right to helm a ship. But the real danger comes later in the form of a vengeful sperm whale, bent on tearing the ship and its crew to pieces.

The secondary story of the film “In the Heart of the Sea” involves author Herman Melville interviewing one of the Essex’s surviving crew members, hoping the story inspires his novel, ‘Moby Dick’. Somehow, despite the lack of a giant whale beating the snot out of a shipload of hapless crewmen, the Melville scenes resonate the most. This is by and large due to a solid performance by Ben Whishaw as Melville and an excellent performance by Brendan Gleeson as tortured sailor Tim Nickerson, who still harbors great pain from the experience and is hiding it in silence and alcohol.

No time for popcorn during this film as you should not be eating during the whale hunt. The no-doubt-reflecting-real-life portrayal of the killing, decimation and obliteration of a whale was nothing short of vile…and, I suppose, a little entertaining for the yuck factor. It’s most likely impossible for a whale, from his underwater perspective, to see his brethren chopped up, hollowed out and boiled on board The Essex, but if he caught a glimpse of it, I’m not surprised he would make it his life’s goal to smash that ship to bits.

So if feeling for the whale and…rooting for him is what director Ron Howard and the filmmakers were going for, then…well…done? (For all I know, that may be how ‘Moby Dick’ reads, too). The shipmates were not all that well-defined. The clash between officers never reached “Crimson Tide” heights, young Nickerson (Tom Holland) doesn’t have a powerful story arc (I enjoyed elder Nickerson much more). It’s probably the most common thing said about movies of this type – I liked it when all hell broke loose, but the characters otherwise weren’t that compelling.

The whale attack scenes have a pulverizing authenticity (for something not real at ALL), the photography and sound design are top notch. However, the pace it’s a snag when the crew becomes shipwrecked on an island as a result of the whale encounter. The plot then seems to just jump between a bunch of things it feels it needs to show us rather than unfold the events with more care. Again, this is where the secondary story wins – Howard lets Gleeson and Whishaw breathe in their scenes (which also feature an effective Michelle Fairley as a sympathetic Mrs. Nickerson).

Have you ever wondered what dialect Chris Hemsworth is doing as Thor? It’s not Norse. Well, neither is his New Englander dialect very Bostonian. As Thor, he still eminates charm through that (British) dialect, but he seems hampered by it here. In fact, Bostonian may be the dialect that’s the biggest hindrance to actors on screen today. And the visual effects are a little overdone. In films like “Cinderella Man” and “Far and Away”, Ron Howard has successfully re-created place and time, but this is looking a little too distractingly green-screen-y, more like “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”.

Full disclosure – I’ve never read ‘Moby Dick’, but from what I understand it’s a real square-off between Ahab and the whale. They meet, they meet again, Ahab becomes possessed. This is where Melville did one better than the truth apparently, ‘cause that obsession isn’t inherent in “In the Heart of the Sea”, it plays out more like just a horrible year in the lives of all involved.

Directed by: Ron Howard
Release Date: December 11, 2015
Run Time: 122 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: PG-13
Distributor: Warner Brothers