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Perfect
Storm, The
(2000) |
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Wolfgang Petersen has earned himself a repuation of churning out high quality mainstream movies ever since he migrated to Hollywood following massive critical acclaim for his U-boat epic Das Boot."In The Line of Fire" was a class act, and Air Force One showed Petersen's mastery of the action thriller genre. With the fact based Perfect Storm Petersen returns to the watery depths he ought to be quite familiar with having done Das Boot.
Storm, features George Clooney - the biggest Hollywood star, despite not having any hit films to his credit, and fast rising Mark Wahlberg - the two real life buddies reuniting for Warners after the hugely enjoyable Three Kings. Perfect Storm is about the devastating multi-hurricane / tornado that resulted in the worst storm recorded in history - and the havoc it played on the Atlantic front of America's East Coast. The film focuses on the depressed fishing community in the town of Gloucester where the Andrea Gale fishing boat, captained by Clooney returns home with a pathetic catch. Clooney and his crew are in danger of going under as the financial noose tightens around them. Clooney with his ego at it's lowest ebb decides to try and turn fortune around by going back out to the ocean, despite the fact that October has set in and the weather is due to turn very very nasty. The movie spends the first hour or so on dry land establishing relationships and fleshing out the characters so that the audience actually feels for them when events take a turn for the worse. We learn about Bobby (Wahlberg) who has a fine, loving woman and it hoping that this trip will be his last before setting up in his modest but idyllic home that his girl has been planning on. Clearly there is much "lurve" between the two. The other characters are similarly shown to be again "good, earnest, hardworking folk" each with their own modest dreams and plans for the future in their fish-infested world. The crew set off, amidst much weeping and sobbing as well as prophetic dialogues like "don't go - I've got a bad feeling about this". As the Andrea Gale departs for the grand banks we cut to a TV weather forecasting station where ominous signs are gathering on the monitors and things are looking grimmer by the moment. After the Andrea Gale comes up empty handed at the banks the possessed Clooney decides that he can't face humiliation by returning empty-handed and so he cajoles his reluctant crew further into dangerous waters by throwing them lines like "this is where we separate the men from the boys". Meanwhile the hurricane come tornado starts to kick in well and truly and the CGI special effects team take over for the rest of the show. As far as the effects are concerned, Storm can't be faulted. The steepling waves and the battering storm is depicted in its most amazing fury despite the fact that a lot of the film was shot in a massive water tank. The water based action scenes are brilliantly effective but unfortunately, things start getting a touch repetitive after a while until we are finally confronted by "that" killer wave which is truly jaw-droppingly stunning. In between the audience gets shown the gallantry of the rescue teams who brave abominable conditions such as these to miraculously pluck out the doomed from certain death. Perhaps the biggest drawback that the movie has is that it is based on fact and that the makers chose not to take massive liberties altering the plot to a more crowd pleasing shape. The film appears in need of a imaginary finish line so that some tension could have been injected where it is ultimately lacking. Proceedings could have used an artificially created climax even if reality dictated that there wasn't one. It's a puzzling adherence to fact when so much of what is depicted is total conjecture. The author of the novel on which the film is based hardly knew the events which took place on board, or indeed the manner in which the Andrea Gale met with its end. Perhaps there is an element of tension missing and a lack of crowd pleasing moments, yet the film can equally be admired for not pandering to "blockbuster" instincts by injecting a fake climax. Clooney does reasonably well as the stubborn and ultimately foolish skipper of the Andrea Gale. Wahlberg does his bit admirably and the rest of the cast is adequate but the film is dominated by the CGI effects which are never less than impressive. James Horner tries to infuse the same dramatic sea disaster type mayhem through his Titanic-like score, and does a reasonable job. It's certainly not a bad film, just one that lacks a certain spark and that nail-biting tension that a film of this type needs.
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