Nothing to see here, keep walking...

Rating: 1/10 (18 December 2013)

I won't discuss the racism, it has been expressed enough by other commentators. What shocked me the most was the stupidity of the characters - a useful tool to create suspenseful situation when nothing justify watchers keeping interest in what is going on.
Examples...
When the first wave arrives, the eldest screams 'Dad' while the dad shouts 'Lucas'. Running away, in silence, is somewhat out of the question. The mother clutches the book she was reading as a protection. After saving themselves, the oldest boy and the mother decide to climb a tree (you have just wasted 10 minutes of your life watching this part). Why? There is no water, the efforts she has to make are incredibly painful and walking further would probably be a better option. They save a little boy (hidden under a very heavy pack of straws) but forget him when they are brought to the hospital. There the oldest son looses track of his mother twice: first, he watches television (they are saying a massive tsunami just killed a lot of people). Second, he runs errands for other victims (his mother asks him to help other people). Rather than telling him where she was moved to or inquiring further about him, a nice nurse sticks a 'orphan' sticker to his chest. When the staff realize they might have the boy of a parent under surgery, they first ask him to repeat his name, then to recognize jewelery - was it to confirm or infirm whose kid he was? Saying 'we think we can bring you to your mum' never occur to them. 'Not saying it' must have been the scenarists motto.
Meanwhile the dad saved his two younger sons. And as the hotel where they stayed is evacuated, he leaves them with nice people, in a truck to a shelter in the mountains, to look for wife and first-born by himself. At night. On the devastated beach. After 10 minutes of fruitless calling, he ends up in a post-traumatic therapy group where he can borrow a phone and call his family in Europe.
So for no real reason the dad, the mum, the 2 younger boys and the oldest one are separated. The last 20 minutes are about nearly seeing each other but somehow looking just the other way at the wrong time. They each do finally meet up after much near misses (the eldest son shouts 'Dad' in an overcrowded hospital rather than the name of his father - the two boys keep calling for the oldest one, who takes a whole minute to turn around and as they don't get down from the truck, it might go away at any time!).
This movie is an insult to your common sense . Pass the word.