A good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Ron Howard and since it was available on HBO Max, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I probably should have watched ‘The Rescue’ instead (an heralded documentary about the same subject) but it’s only afterwards that I discovered that it was also available on Disney+. Anyway, even though I had heard about the rescue of this group of boys in Thailand, I had no idea how it all went down (it was also shrouded with secrecy at the time) and I was quite blown away by this true story. Indeed, it was so intense and insane to see how they had to figure out, first, to reach the boys and, then, how to get them out of there. In this area, Howard didn’t sugar-coat the damned thing at all and, for a very long time, in fact, until they managed to get the first boy out, you got to see only grim faces from the group of experienced divers involved. The pressure and despair on them must have been huge and I think it was something very well handled by Howard. He also gave a frightening and claustrophobic vibe when they were diving in this cave (the real conditions were actually even worse as it was all muddy and they couldn’t see anything at all). On the downside, he did try to minimize the impact of the three famous actors involved (Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton) but he didn’t succeed, I’m afraid. Indeed, they still felt like the White heroes who saved the day while none of the Thai people was given any personality whatsoever. At least, it was a nice touch that all the locals spoke their own language and not in English to make it easier to follow for the mainstream audience. Anyway, to conclude, even if it might not be the best version of this story, it is still a fascinating and unbelievable true tale and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

7/10