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Due to the efforts of Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay, cinema-goers are accustomed to seeing images of mass disaster, to the point that we have become desensitised to destruction and perceive it as innocuous entertainment. But even for the most desensitised film-goers, director Juan Antonio Bayona's The Impossible will scare the living daylights out of you. A horrifyingly vivid dramatisation of the Boxing Day 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, the movie is a harrowing reminder of the reality of real-life catastrophes. Even though The Impossible is Bayona's second feature film after 2007's The Orphanage, the filmmaker hits it out of the park, working with a perfectly balanced screenplay by Sergio G. Sánchez, based on an extraordinary true-life story of one family who survived the tragedy. It's a tale ripe for motion picture treatment, as it's almost too unbelievable to be true, and it reinforces the determination of the human spirit.
For Christmas vacation, married pair Henry (Ewan McGregor) and Maria (Naomi Watts) take their three children, Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast), to Thailand. Staying at a luxurious beach resort, they enjoy a lovely Christmas together that is free from work interference. As the family enjoy a morning of pool activities on Boxing Day, tragedy strikes, with a massive tsunami hitting the coast that decimates the resort and splits everyone up. In the surging waters, Maria and Lucas find one another, though Maria suffers severe wounds that may prove life-threatening if she does not receive urgent medical treatment. Meanwhile, Henry manages to find Thomas and Simon in the aftermath, and he keeps them safe as he sets out to find his wife and other son.
One of the primary strengths of The Impossible is that the protagonists feel like a genuine family unit. Their conversations and interactions are familiar to everyone who grew up with a family, and the depiction of Christmas morning looks like an authentic slice of life, especially since we view everything through the lens of the family's video camera. Developing credible characters amplifies the story's power, as you will shed endless tears whenever family members reunite or something hard-hitting occurs. Also powerful is the depiction of the overwhelming sense of community and unity in Thailand following the disastrous tsunami. Although the Thai people lost everything they owned, they waded through the flood waters right after the wave to help the tourists. Instead of solely focusing on a Western family working to overcome the odds, the film emphasises the help they received from others, with Thai people driving them to safer places, offering them clothes and nursing their wounds. This overwhelming sense of humanity and heart keeps The Impossible from being a brainless special effects demo reel.
Clint Eastwood staged a depiction of the Boxing Day tsunami in his 2010 endeavour Hereafter, a sequence which earned the picture an Oscar nomination for its CGI. But The Impossible tops Eastwood's efforts in execution and staging. I have no idea how Bayona and his crew pulled it off, but the tsunami looks genuine, and the special effects are seamless. Furthermore, the tsunami scenes are heart-wrenchingly intense - as the wave enters the frame and barrels towards the characters, one has to cover their mouth. And watching the characters wade around in the dangerous waters full of sharp debris is almost unbearably visceral. If you've ever wondered how a tsunami would kill you, The Impossible provides an eye-opening lesson. The scenes of the destructive aftermath are equally phenomenal, looking as convincing as anything you will glimpse in a big-budget blockbuster. Just as impressive is the makeup; the images of wounds and sickness are hauntingly realistic. We've all seen the likes of Saw and Hostel, but the injuries here look horrifying, and amazingly, Bayona gets away with such content within the constraints of a PG-13 rating. Equally miraculous is Bayona's ability to achieve such technical luminosity on a scant $45 million budget. Now watch as Bayona is offered every single disaster and action movie currently in pre-production.
It's impossible to overstate how exceptional the actors are, as they ground the movie in a sense of reality and emotion that is pivotal to the feature's success. Watts earned The Impossible its sole Oscar nomination for her astonishing portrayal of Maria. The British-Australian actress shoulders the most responsibility here, needing to convincingly play a loving mother while also conveying fear, injury and illness. Yet, Watts pulls it off with seemingly little effort. Also remarkable is McGregor, who's hugely charismatic and believable, and who handles the emotional aspects of the role with utmost confidence. It's an amazingly multifaceted performance that never feels false or flat. And then there are the boys - Holland, Joslin, and Pendergast - who look and interact like siblings. Holland gets the most to do, and the young actor does a bravura job with the material. Many of the Thai extras here were reportedly actual survivors from the tsunami, which further amplifies the movie's power.
People may deride The Impossible for using British protagonists when the true-life family was Spanish, and for employing a few Hollywood-ish touches here and there. But to do so would be foolhardy. Besides, Watts' real-life counterpart was involved in every aspect of the production to ensure the movie tells her story correctly. The Impossible is a rare type of motion picture, an Oscar-calibre drama that's not unbearably tedious or dumbed-down. It packs a great deal of emotional power, is overwhelmingly human, and keeps you thoroughly interested from start to end. Most remarkable is that the movie still provides a sense of hope through all the doom and gloom. The Impossible is easily one of 2012's best movies, and the fact that it was not even nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars is genuinely baffling.
9.4/10
