It takes "The Finest Hours" some time to find its bearing, afterwards it's a nice sail through the rocky storm

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2016)

As far as disaster movie goes, "The Finest Hours" is atypical of the usual mold. It seems vanilla, slightly timid in the execution, which is still fine due to its production quality, but it does overturn it from more harrowing promises. There's also quite a bit of spotlight given to the romance subplot, this feels unnecessary and in some events might break the pace. However, when it gets the steam rolling, it produces a delightful display of blue cold waves and breaking steel.
This is a real life story of the rescue of the sinking tanker in 1952 told mainly in two perspectives; the Coast Guard Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) and the tanker crew led by Sybert (Casey Affleck). It continuously shifts between the passive yet courageous Webber and equally resourceful though apprehensive Sybert as they struggle through their respective trial.
Chris Pine is good cast, Webber is not like his previous roles, he's more reserve and quite. It's a "shine in peril" kind of role and he delivers well in momentous scenes. Meanwhile, Casey Affleck as the engineer is trying to keep the tanker afloat despite disdain from his colleagues and collapsing morale. These two leads also have the same predicament, Sybert and Webber are not the squad favorite, so it builds up a nice underdog story as well.
One can argue that Miriam (Holliday Grainger) is given the third point of view since her angle takes a few good chunks of the runtime. It's understandable to introduce motivation of loved ones as well as shedding light on Webber's back story, although her parts seem prolonged as some of them are less crucial and the movie could do without them.
For a movie filled with nautical terms, it tries to acclimate the audience to the increasing tension as accessible as possible, concentrating on the race against time with daring attempts and ingenious makeshift means. Visual and audio are a match made in stormy sea. The editing for the more extreme sequences are well crafted, it even portrays the ocean so vastly grim it is borderline romantically ominous.
The ordeal could've been told in crueler and faster fashion, but the direction for an inspiring triumph is appreciated as well. It is a fine venture to the freezing water with warm home to return to.