Mr. Movie: ‘The Finest Hours’ is incredibly intense

Set in 1952, The Finest Hours is based on the true story of the rescue of sailors on two oil tankers in the Atlantic just off Cape Cod during a superstorm. It is about the most dramatic of the rescues and just references the other.

Rescuers braved 70-foot seas and impossible conditions to grab guys trapped on a ship torn in half. The movie treats you to the heroic efforts of the rescuers and the equally heroic work of those being rescued.

Star Trek’s Chris Pine is Bernie Webber, the first mate leading those ordered to brave impossible conditions to rescue the men. Casey Affleck plays Ray Sybert. He’s the guy whose ingenuity saves the men on the tanker. Holliday Granger (TV’s The Borgias) plays Webber’s worried fiancee. Rounding out the cast are the always incredible Ben Foster — who is not given enough to do — and Eric Bana.

The real star of The Finest Hours is director Craig Gillespie. It’s a rescue movie. Nearly everyone is saved, and the ending is happy. It’s not easy to keep an audience on the edge of its seat when the outcome is a known factor. But Gillespie (Million Dollar Arm) gives you a nail-biting, grip-the-seat-rest, hold-your-breath film that is as intense as any thriller you’ve ever seen.

If only the plot and dialogue matched that intensity.

The actors are good, and all do a competent job. Also competent are writers — Scott Silver, Paul Tamsay and Eric Johnson (The Fighter) — who pen the screenplay. It’s a pretty good — but sometimes overly Hollywoodized — script.

Lots of competence, but not much more. And the climax when the sailors get off the boat is laughable and — in my book — ruins what should have been a stand up and cheer ending.

This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: ‘The Finest Hours’ is incredibly intense."