Engaging and at times compelling, The Finest Hours is an old-fashioned tale of heroism on the high seas whilst family, friends and love interest await anxiously on land.
In spite of its subject, helmed by Chris Gillespie, The Finest Hours is a surprisingly quiet, character-driven drama. The reluctant heroes – a quiet, against character Chris Pine and the ridiculously underrated Casey Affleck – are stoic in their actions to save lives.
Shamelessly manipulative it may be, but The Finest Hours is based on a true 1952 with a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard – and its sentimentality and old-fashionedness works perfectly in its telling.
Rating: 62%
Director: Chris Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, Fright Night)
Writer: Scott Silver (The Fighter, 8 Miles), Paul Tamasy (The Fighter, Walking Across Egypt), Eric Johnson (The Fighter) – based on the book by Casey Sherman & Michael J. Tougias
Main cast: Chris Pine (Star Trek, Unstoppable), Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James, Interstellar), Ben Foster (The Program, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints)
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