Entertaining, Inspiring and Gripping.

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2016)

The movie does an good job of portraying a convincing 1950s, innocent ocean town and its people. The casting and acting is strong, and the story, once it gets going, is quite gripping. The special effects of the storm, and waves, the wreck and rescue are handled well and not over-done.
With a film based on a true story like this, it's easy to overlook its qualities and focus on fact checking instead. Unfortunately the movie does stray from the facts, the main discrepancies being depiction of events on-board the SS Pendleton, such as the attempt to ground it on a shoal and the dramatic argument among the crew. These are fictionalised. When it comes to the actual rescue mission, however, events are followed accurately and there is an extra sense of drama knowing that this part of the move happened in real life in much the same way.
A rare movie that not only entertains but, being based on a true-story, also informs and inspires.