Exciting and suspenseful

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2016)

"The Finest Hours" from 2016 is a true story of an incident in 1952.
In February of 1952, an intense, powerful storm hit New England. On that day, an oil tankers splits in half. Hearing the distress signal, the commander, Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana) sends Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) and his handpicked crew on a rescue mission, which almost certainly means death. Bernie is not popular - he was unable to rescue men at another time, though his friends assure him there was nothing he could have done.
The engineer, Sybert (Casey AFfleck) takes over, determined to run the stern to ground so that it will not sink. He has to convince the men not to try to leave in the lifeboats, which will not hold up in the storm. He holds fast and fights them.
As the storm rages, Bernie and his men forge ahead to find survivors.
Very exciting movie with stupendous effects and excellent performances by Chris Pine and Casey Affleck. But what was the stupid love story doing in there? Holliday Grainger is Miriam Webber, whom Bernie meets on a blind date. After several months, she pushes him to marry her, and they decide on an April wedding. Well, she does.
When Bernie is out on his rescue mission, Miriam shows up at headquarters demanding he be ordered back immediately. Not only does she act inappropriately but she is as annoying as hell. She comes through in the end, but this entire story did not belong in the movie. Their love story was not built up enough to see anything between them except her iron will. She makes Bernie look like a wuss.
The '50s were meticulously presented with the historical references correct. I always watch out for that - references and songs etc. were right on.
"The Finest Hours" is a Disney film, and at the end of the film, it catches the viewer up with the real people. Very interesting. Well worth watching, and well directed by Craig Gillespie except for the way the love story was handled.