THE IMPOSSIBLE
Spain, 2012, 114 minutes, Colour.
Naomi Watts, Ewan Mc Gregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Geraldine Chaplin.
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona.
Not a promising title for a powerful film.
This is a Spanish film, Spanish director, Spanish story – which has been transferred to the story of a British family working in Japan and going for a holiday together to a resort in Thailand. It is December 2004 and audiences may quickly realise that this was the month of the tsunami which swept Indian Ocean coasts of countries in South East Asia. And this is what the film is about, survival of the family after being overwhelmed by the vast waves.
This means that the film is tough going for the characters as they try to copy with physical injuries and trauma as well as psychological desperation. This also means that the film is tough going for audiences to watch, not entertainment in the relaxing sense at all, but, of course, a picture of courage and hope.
Mother, Father and three sons fly from Japan (with some nervousness during the trip and some sibling rivalry) but find the new resort cheers them up as they celebrate Christmas, enjoying gifts, the sunshine and swimming. Then it is Boxing Day, all calm, placid until flocks of birds fly in from the sky. Then the gigantic wave and men, women and children being overwhelmed and swept away.
Needless to say, the special effects for the tsunami, the destructive water, the savagery of nature and the subsequent desolation, are impressive. (There were extraordinary effects for the tsunami in Clint Eastwood’s 2010 film, Hereafter.)
The main part of the film is about survival and search for survivors. The first part concentrates on the mother and the older son who find each other quite quickly. After being isolated with them, we become almost as desperate as they are. Naomi Watts gives a powerful performance as the mother, spending most of the time in intense physical pain while concerned about her son. If there were awards for portraying suffering and pain in film, Naomi Watts would be one of the first nominees. Tom Holland is persuasive as the son who has to move from self-preoccupation to concern for his mother and, at her urging, when they eventually get to a hospital, care of locals, trying to do something for others.
Then we see the father, Ewan Mc Gregor, who has survived at the resort with his two sons. They have not been injured so much as others. This part of the film is that of search, the desperation, the near coincidings until the title of the film, something that might have seemed impossible, is achieved.
This is a focus on a Western family rather than on the Thai people, although the Thais are presented as concerned and doing hard and almost impossible work in the hospitals. This is a reminder of how desperate things are in any attempt to cope with injury and death in natural disasters but also in towns and the countryside during war.
1. The impact of the film? The recreation of the tsunami? The consequences? The aftermath? The true story?
2. A Spanish film, British family, the portrait of the Thai people, the tourists? The musical score? Emotional?
3. The realism, the initial flight, the family and their talking, being scared, the resort, the room, the pool? The tsunami, the sudden impact of the water, the underwater photography? The injuries, people surfacing, the physical devastation, the isolation of the survivors, the silence, the rubble?
4. Maria and Henry, their children, the behaviour on the plane, Lucas and his being unwilling to help his scared brother? Maria and her strong personality? Christmas Eve, the children all happy together, the presents, the holiday mood, the bonding?
5. The focus on one family, a white visiting family? Showing Maria and Lucas as surviving, leaving the others to the later part of the film? Maria, the impact of the water, her being swirled, Lucas, the separation, trying to get onto the mattress, their being together, Maria and her leg injuries, stoicism? Climbing the tree? Hearing Daniel cry, going back, helping him because of principles and compassion? Lucas seeing Daniel at the end, with his father? His emotional telling of this to his mother?
6. Naomi Watts and her performance, the ability to show excruciating pain? Audience empathy?
7. Maria and her being dragged by the rescuers, the pain as she was pulled, on the truck and the bouncing, going to the hospital, the treatment, on the board, the bed? Needing the antibiotics? Going to surgery? Lucas as a character, his age, the strong performance by Tom Holland? His fears, absorbed with himself at first, his mother making him realise that he should think of others, getting Daniel? His going around the hospital, searching for relatives, getting the list of names, finding the boy, reuniting him with his father? Then Lucas losing his mother? His bewilderment?
8. The nurse, her sympathy, the tag on Lucas’s lapel, his searching, the wrong name put on Maria’s arm, her disappearance, eventually finding her? Her being weak, the woman in the next bed, the vomiting of blood, the talk, the woman who had lost her family?
9. Henry and his search, the boys surviving, the story, sending them to higher ground, his staying at the resort? His grief and weeping? Making a friend with Karl? Karl and his loss of family? Henry and his searching for his wife, for the boys? The boys on the truck, the little boy wanting to pee? Their getting off the truck?
10. Coincidences, people passing but not seeing each other? Lucas finding Maria, her weakness, his seeing his father, trying to find him, the boys seeing Lucas, their being reunited, with Maria, her hopes? On the plane for Singapore?
11. The true story, a Spanish family instead of British? Their picture at the end? The film fulfilling audience expectations? But a harrowing experience to watch?
