Great film! A must see for the new year

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2013)

WARNING MY REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS. Apologies but it was too difficult not to.
I went to see this film this evening with my mum. I was very excited to watch this (if that's the right word for such a sad film) because the trailer really captured my emotion and the detail of the film it's self as well as the acting looked truly magnificent and true to the real event. It is about a family of five, who in the film are English but in real life are Spanish, however this did not effect the truth behind the story. It follows their story from the day they arrive through the event and the day they leave the country of Thailand.
When the day of the dreadful tsunami arrives the atmosphere is still as though preparing for something. The mother (Maria) drops a page from her book and goes to retrieve it. She crouches next to a pain of glass and it begins to shake. Knowing something is wrong she looks up and the birds are flying away from the shore line. Then panning towards the dad and three sons, they look and the wave hits. The dad and the two younger sons are swept under and the eldest boy Lucas dives into the pool whilst the mother cowers against the glass. This scene is very powerful and upsetting, when watching it the footage feels so real, as though you are actually there. When the characters are struggling you almost feel their pain, the camera shows debris hitting the mother Maria and the eldest son Lucas making you wince at the sound of the objects as they hit and cut them. My self and others in the audience gasped out loud at the reality of the filming.
The story then continues and mostly follows Maria and Lucas as they find safety. Maria is severely injured and the pain she feels goes right through you, Naomi Watts is phenomenal throughout the film, a truly talented actress. The acting throughout all characters is amazing but Watts steels the show for me. After they reach safety Maria is in a bad way and is helped by local Thai people. This scene is very affectionate and yet again emotional. When they both reach a hospital the amount of people that were been affected becomes apparent. There is one difficult scene when Maria is coughing blood, it is quite hard to watch. The film then reaches the father, Henry who is still at the coast looking for Maria and Lucas. When he goes back inside the building ruins it is a relief when the two younger boys Tomas and Simon are safe. Henry then leaves the younger boys to continue searching for the other two. The acting of the youngest sons is excellent and very touching. Henry then ends up checking the hospital where Maria and Lucas are and throughout the scene Henry and Lucas are walking around missing each other only by a few feet which is frustrating, you almost want to shout out loud that they are in that hospital.
Lucas ends up sighting the back of his dad Henry and runs outside searching for him. The two younger boys are also in the area as the bus they are on stops. The four characters luckily end up reuniting during this scene and this was one of the most emotional scenes at which I couldn't hold back the tears. The family then reunite and Maria goes into theatre for operation which is a very tense scene, Lucas falls asleep and as though he is dreaming we re live the tsunami as hit the coast. During this we see Maria struggling in the water through the debris and appears to be drowning but then reaches for the surface in a dramatic slow mo sequence. This dream then relates back to present time as Maria fights for her survival. Her triumph in reaching the surface almost reveals that she has survived the op, and will be OK. This is the outcome which is a great relief that the family are going to be OK. The five of them then catch a flight to Singapore away from the devastation, and it is a shot over the ocean where the film comes to an end.
The impossible is an amazing story and piece of film work and array of talent. I was close to tears throughout the whole of the film, each scene was emotional giving me that painful lump in the thought. But there were two scenes where I could not hold back the tears, one of which I have mentioned. It is a great film and I would highly recommend it as a must see of 2013, but be ready with a tissue to hand as it is a real tear jerker of a story, a true story that really did seem impossible.