Butler's Cinema Scene

“THE IMPOSSIBLE” My rating: B+ (Opens Jan. 4 at the Glenwood Arts, Cinemark Palace, Palazzo 16 and Independence 20)114 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

It takes almost a determined act of will power to watch “The Impossible,” Juan Antonio Beyona’s hair-raising film about a vacationing family torn apart by the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Thailand’s resort-packed coast.

It’s that scary and painful.

A good thing, then, that “The Impossible” has been so beautifully acted, with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor giving what may be career-high performances as real-life couple separated by the disaster and, as their oldest son, young Tom Holland establishing himself as an actor of great promise.

Maria (Watts) and Henry (Ewan McGregor) live in Japan with their three boys. For Christmas they book a bungalow at an idyllic Thai resort where they take advantage of the snorkeling, sailing and swimming.

And then a wall of water 30 feet high roars in from the sea, toppling palm trees, flipping cars and tearing the family apart.

Naomi Watts, Tom Holland

The screenplay by Sergio G. Sanchez first follows Maria and the oldest boy, Lucas (Holland), who are swept far inland on a river of muddy water and dangerous debris.

Maria is nearly incapacitated when a tree limb punctures her side and a chunk of her leg is ripped off. She struggles to remain calm as she and Lucas cling to a floating log. They even are able to rescue a small boy perched above the swirling waters in a  tree.

The film follows their rescue by local villagers, who take them to a hospital overrun by the lost and injured. Lucas tries to be of hellp, at one point reuniting a desperate father with his missing little boy. But Maria’s injuries are grave and the medical staff strapped beyond bearing; there’s a good chance she won’t make it.

Ewan McGregor

Halfway through the film picks up the tale of Henry and the other two boys, who are engaged in a desperate search to find the missing family members.

The film’s title clearly refers to the unlikelihood that all the family members will survive, and the screenplay cannily rations the information we receive about how the various individuals survived the tsunami.

Plus, the film works not only on a personal level (that of parents desperate to reunite with their children and with each other) but on a broader social plane, with a genuinely scary/inspiring depiction of the chaos and devastation in the wake of such a cataclysmic disaster.

The family on which “The Impossible” is based was Spanish, not English, but that’s of no great import. Far more telling is the emotional power captured here, with the film taking us from joy to horror to a sort of end-of-the-world fatalism and finally back to hope again.

It’s not an easy ride. But in the hands of Beyona (best known for the horror hit “The Orphanage”) it’s well worthwhile.
| Robert W. Butler