The Impossible

I think I now know why I did not write this review late last night and saved it for early this morning instead. I can speak for both Prarthana and I when I say that we were quite overwhelmed from memories of over 8 years back flooding back into our heads. We were left quite muddled and somber.

I can clearly remember the morning of 26th December 2004. It was a lazy Sunday morning to begin with. I was @ my parent’s place for some reason. I woke up around 730 am if I am not mistaken and customarily switched on my television. My mum used to get quite irritated with that (she still does).

But for around an hour after that most of us barely spoke a word because of the shocking visuals all over international television. Every channel from the less astute Aaj Tak to the most composed BBC was airing visual after visual that shocked the living daylights out of us. All of this on the laid back morning after Christmas.

Maria (Naomi Watts) and Henry Belon (Ewan McGregor) were a Spanish couple who decided the spend the Christmas and New Years Eve of 2004 @ The Orchid Resort in Thailand – a gorgeous beach facing property. They were based out of Japan because of Henry’s assignment there.

Accompanying them were their three children – Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast), aged 12, 7 and 5 respectively. One big happy family as most would have guessed. With their normal problems and their normal issues. But happy nevertheless.

While their nationalities have been changed in the movie (to address a larger audience I would guess – they were Spanish), the story is true. The family was around the hotel swimming pool when the wall of water washed them away splitting them into two groups. Maria and Lucas managed to find themselves in the raging waters. Henry, Thomas and Simon come up closer to the hotel.

The story, like many others who were devasted in the Tsunami, is about how they managed to not only hang on to dear life but eventually find each other in the chaos and carnage that reigned supreme. All through the movie, I could only think to myself that they family must have been very close to the creator to have found each other. Most of the others were not so lucky.

If you do walk into the cinema hall then brace yourself for a not so pleasant blast from the past. One that has been shot extremely well and directed in a manner that is probably best possible by a 38 year old Spanish talent called Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage). There is a lot of attention to detail. And obviously the effects are fantastic.

I was wondering why it took 8 years for someone to make a movie on probably the biggest natural disaster that most of us have ever seen. My guess – 90 out of 100 dropped out because they could not handle the devastation and the gut wrenching stories associated with it. Of the remaining, very few could have handled the balance between sensitivity and reality. 8 on 10 for the movie and Bayona.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi118006809/