merry christmas

Rating: 9/10 (11 February 2020)

The Impossible (2012)
The gripping tale of the Boxing Day tsunami (2004) follows the Bennett family to Thailand on their Christmas vacation. The family of 5 are soon in for a traumatic shock when they are swept away from their exotic resort by a massive tsunami. This film is based on a true story of a family who lived through this disaster. It was one of the deadliest disasters in recorded history, leaving at least 200.00 people dead. The tsunami wreaked havoc on the resort and the surrounding coastline, destroying everything. Infrastructure was destroyed, trees knocked down, cars carried away, and people clinging on to whatever they could for dear life.
In this movie, you can see the mother clinging to a tree, alone. The family has been torn apart and no one is safe. As the movie progresses you can see that the mother and oldest son are reunited and father and two youngest boys together as well. The story is about desperation and fighting to survive, especially on the mom's end. This movie portrays the medical emergency response to this disaster as incompetent, in my opinion. They are lacking the resources to run efficiently as well as overpopulating the "hospital" rooms. The filmmakers drew attention to bugs in the hospital scenes, probably to point out that the hospitals were not sanitary. Overall, I think the filmmakers portrayed what it was like quite well while still focusing on the main characters and their journey. Obviously, there would have been more people in the water and around the background, but I think they chose to only focus on the family not so much the death toll, being that it is about their struggle.
Some things that I noticed in the movie was that at the resort there were no warnings or sirens that went off before the tsunami hit. This would have saved lives if the resort employees were taught the proper evacuation plan for such a disaster. Also, wouldn't the beachgoers have felt an earthquake that happens before a tsunami? I don't know about the science on that one. I did like the portrayal of the native Thais in the film. It showed their vulnerability and it also how they were willing to help the vacationers. One other thing I noticed in the movie was the inaccuracy of the survivor lists in the hospitals. So many people are looking for their loved ones, *SPOILER* and when the father goes to the hospital that his wife and son are at (unbeknownst to him) he almost leaves because his wife's name is not on the list. However, he quickly finds his boys when they reunite after the smallest one needs to relieve himself, and the oldest boy shows his family where their mom is being treated.
Most disaster films have a bad reputation, but this one portrays this families experience and the reality of the disaster quite well I would say, except the fact that they completely changed the race of the family, but that is beside the point.