Powerful, numbing film of one miracle amongst 227,898 tragedies.

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2013)

On Boxing Day 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated swathes of bordering landmasses. It wiped out entire communities, reportedly eradicated an entire race and amassed a death toll of 227,898 people in fourteen countries. From this horror emerged the story of a family who survived and found each other amongst the destruction. It was a story both fantastic and seemingly impossible. See what they did there? The Impossible opens with a couple of horrible scenes that scream "You WILL love this perfect family!" and demands we know exactly how wonderful and worthy of our crossed fingers they are. My heart sank and I slouched into my seat, resigned to a horribly saccharine experience. And then The Impossible caught its reflection in the mirror, shuddered and got on with being a very fine film indeed.
It's not perfect. Firstly, the family is French. Last time I looked, Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and the boys were not. So why were they cast? Box office takings! I'm willing to bet the average British and American cinemagoer, the desired demographic at least, couldn't name more than one French actor (Gérard Depardieu) or a couple of French actresses (Audrey Tautou, Marion Cotillard) and they don't make a pretty couple or open a movie stateside. One suspects the final reuniting of the family is tidier than in reality and it dampens the emotional impact of all that has preceded, but running time constraints make that understandable.
Less acceptably, while The Impossible understandably focuses on one family, the peripheral characters are almost entirely tourists. Tourists accounted for approximately 9,000 casualties but little attention is given to two hundred and twenty thousand (give or take) indigenous victims other than showing they helped the injured tourists. Hmmm.
And the most frightening scene in the entire film is a truly horrible Carrie-like hand emerging (from the sea rather than a grave) to an endless violin explosion that is entirely nauseating when complete silence would have been infinitely more powerful.
However, The Impossible is emotionally stirring and rather than simply tugging at heartstrings mawkishly, it draws us into the horrific situation. In a similar way to the Omaha Beach sequences of Saving Private Ryan, we feel the physical pain of Maria (Naomi Watts) as she is bounced, pounded and pierced by debris under water. Frequently the audience recoiled and inhaled sharply in unison as the utter destruction, to feeble bodies more so than landscape, was unavoidably apparent. As a toddler mewed like tortured kitten, the reality of the impact the tsunami had on so many people struck hard and doubt I was alone in imagining myself in the situation of losing those I care most about.
The physical effects (apparently probative cost kept CGI to a minimum) are blisteringly good. To me they were shockingly realistic and more impactful than I had imagined and my thoughts have been echoed by some who were there. Forget cheesy Poseiden water effects, the unforgiving wave is breathtaking and you'll grimace as it smashes with its initial destruction and then withdraws and returns for another attack. And another.
Director Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage) cleverly staggers the horror throughout the film so we aren't blasted with an hour of annihilation followed by endless schmaltz. He weaves it carefully throughout the story so that we cannot escape the reality or slip into carefree comfort but must endure the constant reminders of how truly horrific, how cataclysmic the tsunami was, not just on one Boxing Day but for the days, weeks, months after. Years later the land is still scarred and the dead still do not breath and Bayona takes care to show us this without taking us so far out of our comfort zones we cannot 'enjoy' The Impossible.
The star names this is pinned on are superb throughout (overlooking the initial scenes). Both McGregor and Watts have their moments centre stage and their anguish is palpable. It's been a very long time since I cried in the cinema but I wiped moistened eyes more often than I'll admit and my throat felt larger than it should. When Henry borrows a phone to call home but crumples, it is not only McGregor's remarkable performance that induces tears, it is the way he drags us into his situation with him and we find ourselves thinking not 'Who would I call?' but 'Can I remember their phone number?' Once again, after Beasts of the Southern Wild and Jagten, the child actors astound in their ability to match their adult counterparts. Though the younger sons have little weight to carry, Tom Holland's performance as eldest son Lucas is remarkably mature and marks him as actor who just might have the depth and ability to sustain a career beyond puberty. There is such reality in his performance as a son desperate for his mum to hold and reassure him, but called upon to help her live. As she coughs blood uncontrollably, he yells at her "Stop doing that!" masking his terror with heartbreaking anger. At various times throughout The Impossible, I looked upon Lucas and his brothers and considered no child should be forced to grow up so quickly.
The Impossible will surely be criticized for being sentimental but that is both harsh and unfair. This is no Titanic that we'll look back on with embarrassment. This is a remarkable true story of something close to a miracle that occurred in the midst of chaos and obliteration but, even in the moments of elation, Bayona remains grounded and one family's joy is cause for both celebration and damnation as less fortunate survivors wander past, watching in aloof desolation.
The Impossible is a numbing experience that will sit with you on your journey home. One miracle does not erase 227,898 tragedies.
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