Mediocre

Rating: 4/10 (1 December 2012)

The Impossible is visually very good: appealing photography, great special effects, good overall cinematography. And that is all one will remember about this movie, because it obviously lacks ambition and a strong script.
Everything unfolds very (too) linearly and Bayona served up every cliché of the genre in a badly, clumsy manner: emphatic shots, slow motions, omnipresent violins... too much pathos kills. The director may be Spanish but it seems the movie comes straight out of the Hollywood emotions factory. Moreover, the dialogues seem bland and for the most part not that well written, one may even begin to question their credibility. The movie also looses a lot of dynamism after the hour mark, it then becomes very, very long until the final -and predictable- outcome.
Disappointing.