A Solid and Respectful Depiction of a Tragedy

Rating: 8/10 (9 October 2016)

I really liked this movie. I think the element of it I appreciated the most was how it was told. In the hands of anyone else (looking at you Michael Bay), this could have been very disrespectful. It could have turned into an over-the-top action movie, that would have been insulting to the victims and casualties in this horrific accident. But it was not done in that way. Director Peter Berg treated this almost like a documentary: he's just there with a camera to witness this event, not to stylize or enhance it. I never felt like Mark Wahlberg was being portrayed as an action hero. It could have been very easy for this movie to slip into that mold. But instead, he was a victim of a tragedy, and he was forced to act and survive in an impossible situation.