‘The Impossible’: A compelling battle for survival

“The Impossible”

4.5 stars

Starring: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Geraldine Chaplin, Ploy Jindachote, Johan Sundberg

Rating: PG-13, for dramatic intensity, horrific mass injury and brief nudity

A horrific natural disaster is seen through the eyes of a desperate family

By Derrick Bang
Enterprise film critic

Félix Bergés and Pau Costa have been deservedly lauded for their special effects; the replicated tsunami — which killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries, on Dec. 26, 2004 — is completely terrifying, as depicted here on the screen.

But these images, although breathtaking and grim, aren’t the strongest element of director Juan Antonio Bayona’s film. That honor belongs to Oriol Tarragó and Marc Bech, who designed and edited the chilling sound effects. Indeed, that’s how “The Impossible” opens: on a black and silent screen, with a rising, gurgly sort of rumble that intensifies until we scarcely can stand it, wondering precisely what the sound signifies.

We imagine the worst, our minds racing in ghastly directions, this directorial choice far more powerfully placing us “in the moment” than what might be shown.

Then we nearly jump out of our seats as a passenger jet screams into the suddenly illuminated frame, taking our protagonists to what they expect will be an idyllic Christmas holiday in Thailand.

This won’t be the last time Bayona unsettles us with his imaginative application of sound and sound effects. He plays us masterfully, utilizing every element at hand: visual, aural and psychological. The result is impressive, if arduous: often quite difficult to watch.

Sergio G. Sánchez’s screenplay is based on the events as experienced by María Belón, Quique Alvarez and their three sons: Lucas, Tomas and Simon. They’re played here, respectively, by Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor (renamed Henry), Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast. The actual family is Spanish; the script’s one major deviation from fact is to re-cast them as British.

This isn’t merely a concession to box-office popularity, Watts and McGregor undoubtedly being perceived as a draw. This cinematic family’s pale skin and clearly privileged manner — Henry’s high-level job in Japan allowing the luxury of their global travel — more visibly shorthands the cultural divide, once tragedy strikes.

Dozens of moments in this film will build a lump in the throat — indeed, after a time, the emotional intensity never diminishes — but the simple, unexpected gestures of kindness, often across language barriers, are the most powerful. A door, ripped from its hinges and used as a makeshift stretcher. A cell phone. A child’s shy smile, and gentle stroking of a friendly arm.

Devastating.

The story begins peacefully, even idyllically, as Maria, Henry and their three sons arrive at the lush Orchid Resort. These characters are sketched quickly — but vividly — in these early scenes: Henry the loving husband and father, perhaps concerned about the stability of his job; Maria a doctor who has put her practice on hold, to raise her family.

Lucas has reached the mildly rebellious age where stirrings of independence prompt him to lose patience with his two younger brothers. Middle son Thomas, unusually timid, is fascinated by stars and constellations. Five-year-old Simon is cheerful and untroubled, still too young to believe the world is anything but a happy, magical place.

Christmas comes and goes; Boxing Day arrives equally untroubled. The family joins other tourists in the resort pool. Henry, Thomas and Simon tussle in the water; Lucas crosses the deck to retrieve a large plastic ball; Maria chases a loose page from the book she’s reading, finally snatching it while crouched in front of a plate-glass barrier. (Oh God, we think.)

Birds shriek overhead, flying away from … something. The low roar that has been at the edge of everybody’s awareness — ours included — builds. Lucas pauses, and Bayona trusts young Holland’s tense pose and stunned expression to convey the horror of this suddenly approaching wall of water.

Then, chaos.

Maria eventually surfaces, battling for sunlight while countless other people, knocked senseless after being hurled into hard objects, silently drown. She spots Lucas, similarly struggling; they fight implacable currents while trying to reach each other. Fingers clutch, part, clutch again.

This lengthy second act is devoted to Maria and Lucas, as the boy takes charge after realizing the severity of his mother’s injuries. The first shattering moment comes as they reach the (possible) safety of shallow water, and Lucas recoils from his mother’s bared and gashed breast. Holland’s face is a powerful blend of anguish and embarrassment, as he says, barely audibly, “Mum … I can’t see you like that.” (She doesn’t yet know about the gaping tear on the back of her right leg.)

Watts, in turn, continues the moment: Despite the pain building by the second, now that panic is subsiding, Maria grimly tries to cover herself, instinctively understanding that her son needs the assurance of propriety, if he’s to hold it together. Lucas, in turn, quickly realizes that he dare not cry; if he does, his mother will lose her fragile hold on self-control.

Watts’ Academy Award nomination is a given; rarely has an actress been to hell and back so many times, and so persuasively. Her hold on life itself seems to slip away, as Maria’s wounds take their toll. I’m deeply disappointed, though, that young Holland hasn’t been similarly acknowledged. He charts an impressive emotional course as this saga progresses, his manner and actions never less than absolutely authentic.

Holland’s Lucas becomes our surrogate, the boy rising to various challenges in the manner we’d hope to possess. I’m reminded of young Ross Harris in 1983’s “Testament,” as the resolute boy who bicycles throughout his fallout-infected town, serving as a de facto messenger for friends and neighbors.

Holland has a similarly poignant scene when the action shifts to the Takua Pa hospital, with lone survivors wondering whether family members might be alive elsewhere in this huge, now largely makeshift facility. He initially promises to help one man, and soon Lucas is trolling the corridors, calling off names from an ever-expanding list.

Bayona, torturing us anew, juxtaposes elation with heartbreak.

Coincidence, trauma and misidentification — in great part due to the language barrier — build to a point that’s impossible to bear. Bayona is quite adept at such emotional manipulation, having profoundly disturbed us with 2007’s chiller, “The Orphanage.” “The Impossible” is a different sort of horror film, with moments, images and emotions so raw that they’re capable of leaving mental scars.

Watts and Holland get the lion’s share of screen time, but the acting throughout is sensational. Joslin’s Thomas visibly struggles to overcome his own terror when put in charge of Simon; the transition is poignant beyond words. Pendergast’s tiny face, in turn, turns painfully desperate when circumstances prevent Simon from going to the bathroom: a remnant of civilized behavior the little boy can’t bear to part with.

Óscar Faura’s cinematography is superb, initially conveying this land’s delicate beauty, and then — in the aftermath — the oppressive, fetid, heat-drenched devastation. Editors Elena Ruiz and Bernat Vilaplana deserve considerable credit for both pacing and intensity. Bayona similarly understands when to bring the camera in for a close-up, and when to pull back, to convey the utter helplessness of frail human beings beset by Nature at her worst.

“The Impossible” is profoundly hard to endure at times, and yet it’s also profound in a spiritual sense: a testament to human resilience and compassion, and the willingness of total strangers to pull together, in a crisis, for the collective greater good.

Frankly, it’s refreshing to see such a positive, uplifting depiction of people as selfless citizens of the world.

— Read more of Derrick Bang’s film criticism at http://derrickbang.blogspot.com. Comment on this review at www.davisenterprise.com