No an easy cinematic experience, but absolutely worthwhile

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2013)

I doubt if there is even one member in the audience that does not know what this movie is about. But then, I also try to imagine myself to be one such. The first 15 minutes of the movie will have me mildly suspenseful of where it is heading. I see a perfectly normal, middle class family, loving parents and three sons from just preteen to 5 years old, enjoying a perfectly normal Christmas vacation in a perfectly normal tropical paradise. The mood is quieter than usual, almost languid, but there nothing really unusual. Perhaps it's just the style of the director. But then, there is a palpable ominous undercurrent. Yes, life is not perfect and the husband intimates to the wife his imminent concern of job security. That, however, is hardly a unique experience to anybody in middle management in today business world. What is going to happen? I would start fidgeting in my seat. Then, about 15 minute into the movie, in just 30 seconds, the world has completely changed, and will never be the same again. But, even if an audience experience this devastation (on screen) for the first time just like the family in real life, they will be nowhere near to being able to empathize.
Take another angle. I recently saw the last cinematic episode in the "Twilight" series, at the conclusion of which I witnessed, within a few minutes, close to a score of heads (vampire heads, I grant you) being ripped right off their necks. I didn't even blink. For "The impossible", in watching the 20 minutes after the tsunami strikes, I had to close my eyes several times, because the bloody images are not just so real, and also so real-life. It is so well made that the audience is drawn right into the agony of the victims. But then, I'm sure, again, we are nowhere near to experiencing what they actually went through. Watching "The impossible", however, bring us to about as close as we can get.
But this is experiencing the devastation of the tsunami victims, "brutal and relentless" as Ewan McGregor said in an interview. It is also discovering the hope, resilience and goodness in catastrophe: through the mother convincing the son that they should try to save a little kid while their own lives are in imminent danger of another tsunami hit; through a man lending his cell phone to the father not once, but twice while the battery is getting low while he is hoping to receive news from his family; through the son going tirelessly all through the make-shift hospital calling out names to help people look for their family; through the "nearly-75" old woman sitting down next to the "7-and-a-half" boy in the deep silence of the night and the two start chatting, almost nonchalantly, about the mysterious and the wonders of the universe while gazing at the star that are already dead, light years away. And the old woman is played by Geraldine Chaplin – remember Tonya "Doctor Zhivago" (1965)?
Noami Watt (Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actress nominee) and Ewan McGregor are both impeccable as the parents. The spotlight however, is on young Tom Holland who plays the eldest son Lucas. Votes are unanimous that this young man, for whom the cliché "talented" is not quite adequate, will become the brightest new star in the coming decade and beyond. Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast, as the 7 and 5 year old sons, are equally wonderful. Notice that I have deliberately omitted giving any concrete description of these uniformly superb performances. I don't want to spoil the enjoyment of those who have not yet seen the movie.
"The impossible" tells the story like it is, from the first-hand account the Spanish that survived this ordeal. It is delightfully free from crafty contrivances and manipulations. The ensemble of top-notch actors is all that is needed. Indeed, towards the end, at the scene where the scattered family members find each other, there is a degree of melodramatic (mainly in coincidences). I find that not only acceptable, but actually welcomed.