A Squandered Opportunity **SPOILERS**

Rating: 2/10 (14 December 2017)

QUESTION: Which of these two stories sounds more interesting?
(1) A Coast Guardsman has to pilot a tiny boat into the middle of a storm in order to rescue a group of people stranded on a sinking ship.
(2) When his ship is caught in a storm and splits in half, the bow sinking and taking with it the entire bridge crew, an ordinary seaman finds a way to jury-rig the stern half of the ship with a manual rudder steered by his surviving shipmates in an all-out effort to drive it to shore.
If you're "The Finest Hours," the answer is obvious - the first story.
"Wait," you may be asking, "what was that about some guy driving half a ship?"
Oh, don't worry about that.
Yes, this is the biggest problem with "The Finest Hours" - its fatal decision to tell the story from exactly the wrong perspective. It's a decision so bafflingly stupid I can't get my head around it. It completely ruined the film.
Chris Pine plays the aforementioned Coast Guard sailor, and his arc takes up most of the running time. He's not a particularly interesting character, yet from the very beginning of the film, we see everything through his eyes. We see him fall in love with his wife in a first act that drags and drags. It lulls the viewer into thinking he's seeing some kind of romance rather than a heart-stopping real-life adventure. The actual plot ends up blindsiding the viewer.
It's not until the second act that you really get a chance to meet Casey Affleck, who plays the seaman on the doomed freighter. Right away, we see he's not respected by other members of his crew, and in fact is a bit of a recluse. But when the storm tears apart his ship, he suddenly finds himself thrust into a leadership role. Taking the initiative, we see him come up with an insane plan to drive the broken part of his ship to shore. And, more unbelievably, it actually works - he even manages to beach the ship within sight of land.
But the film doesn't care. I'd be generous in saying that it thinks that both Pine and Affleck's characters are equally compelling, but it just isn't true. Pine's story continually interferes with Affleck's, so much so that we miss some of the most interesting moments, such as the trial-and-error that must have happened as Affleck worked out his radical plan. In its place, we have to endure Pine's dull romantic subplot with his anxious wife, as if the story's really about them at the exclusion of everyone else.
The ultimate absurdity is that the film seems to become aware that Pine's arc isn't as interesting, and has to reach to make up for it. The defining scenes are when Pine's boat is confronted with a single wave that is his biggest obstacle leaving and returning to the harbor. Both scenes of the wave are slowed down for dramatic effect. But it's laughable when you realize how small his boat is, and thus, how small the wave must be. It just doesn't compare to the borderline superheroics of Affleck's character which - it must be said - involves traveling much further than Pine ever does.
Oh, and I forgot to mention - there are actually TWO ships in danger, which is the whole reason Pine gets stuck with the small boat. We don't see what happens on this second ship at all, or the rescue that takes place. Pine's arc makes it completely irrelevant.
This film symbolizes a very real problem in America with regard to its hero worship. There's this mistaken belief that a man or woman in uniform doing his duty is every bit as heroic - or more so - than an ordinary person who goes above and beyond the call of duty. And, don't be mistaken, that's exactly what's going on here. Pine may have been dealt a cruddy hand by having to pilot a small boat, but he's just doing his job in going out there. Affleck, on the other hand, could've easily just given up or tried to save himself - after all, none of his shipmates liked him. But he didn't, and he went well above and beyond what was expected of him. Affleck is the true hero of this story - Pine is merely a supporting actor.
Think of this in the context of "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) (spoilers ahead on this film, too).
Though a fictional film, "Poseidon" chooses to focus on the normal passengers who try to fight their way to higher ground in a capsized ship. These Affleck-like characters are the heroes of the story, and everything is told from their view. The Coast Guard has a role as well, but they only arrive in the final minute of the film, after the passengers did 95% of the work in saving themselves. Just because the Coast Guard do dangerous work doesn't mean they're always the heroes. And, guess what - they're not as relateable to a typical audience as people like themselves.
This is exactly how "The Finest Hours" should have been made. It should have started with Affleck on the ship and stayed with him for the entire film. We should've learned more about him, why he is the way he is, and why the others don't respect him. We should've seen every moment of his unbelievable courage, and wondered moment by moment if he would succeed. You can still put Pine in the story, but have him show up as one final obstacle. Think of the drama where, after all Affleck does, we discover that the only ship that reaches them is one too small to save everyone. Unbelievable! That would've been such a tremendous reveal and really added depth and action to the story.
Who's to blame? Well, the writers, of course. How could they not have seen this? Maybe they wanted to show the heroics of both sides, but really, when you look at the story, the characters just aren't equal. The story demands better than what they gave it. A simple script revision would've fixed this. It's clear such revisions weren't attempted, and they rushed the first draft of the script. For shame.
It may seem silly to criticize a film based on real events, but that doesn't mean there's only one way to present it. And if one-half of your story is vastly more interesting than the second half, why not feature it more? At the end of the day, big-budget films like this are entertainment, and you have to put your best foot forward.
Two out of ten stars for Affleck's awesomeness, proportionate to how little of it the film lets you see.