Review: The Impossible (2012)

06, December 2012Approved By NP, Reviews

Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Country: Spain
Genre: Action | Drama | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: For an additional perspective on The Impossible, read Mel Valentin’s review. The Impossible opens in limited release on December 21st, 2012.

Watching The Impossible, we realize there is no limit to human courage and empathy. Such traits are buried deep within us, and it’s to our detriment that many of us rarely tap the dense reserve. Maybe we’re too complacent. Maybe it’s too difficult. But in the absolute harshest of circumstances, when it would be easiest to give in and surrender to the elements, our survival instinct kicks in, our power bar fills up, and we engage the fierce struggle. If we are capable of summoning such immense strength by sheer will – if we are so compelled to not merely risk our lives to protect those we love, but also reach out to help others in the same situation – then why can’t we look to our shared humanity when our lives aren’t in peril? We are all rats in this maze, with shared hopes, dreams, fears, and desires. We are clearly capable of pulling together when the waves are rough. So why can’t we stay together when the tide calms?

Watching The Impossible, we realize there is no limit to human courage and empathy. Such traits are buried deep within us, and it’s to our detriment that many of us rarely tap the dense reserve.

These are some of my thoughts after experiencing the film, which, beyond its obvious visual and emotional power, wields that most potent of cinema forces: the power of suggestion. Any film that depicts widespread disaster – I’m not going insult this humane work about a real tragedy with real people by labeling it a “Disaster Movie” – will touch a nerve when the viewer inserts herself or himself into the story. The Impossible is one of those deeply intimate films that not only triggers our empathy, but makes us think deeply on our tightest bonds and appreciate those we love a little bit more.

Anyone cognizant enough to remember the catastrophic tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean in December 2004 likely remembers it from the TV coverage. We flipped over to CNN, witnessed the destruction in real time, and our hearts simultaneously hurt for the victims and felt eased by the reality that our families were safe at home. The Impossible places us squarely in the middle of the tragedy, with a fact-based, first-person account one of family’s extraordinary struggle through the mess.

Detailed plot synopsis seems pointless for a film like this, where the initial narrative is quickly exploded by natural disaster and we follow not a pat story, but the moment-by-moment actions of characters driven solely by need and love. For a quick primer, Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor are Maria and Henry, who have escaped a presumably hectic life in Japan (where Henry works) to Thailand for a short Christmas vacation with their three children. They arrive on December 24^th, celebrate Christmas on the 25^th, and are literally struck head-on with the massive storm on the 26^th.

The film that unfurls before us is the family’s fight for survival, which is among the most harrowing pieces of cinema you will see all year. Such a blunt-force tragedy and its immediate aftermath doesn’t necessarily lend itself to conventional three-act storytelling. The brilliance of what director Juan Antonio Bayona and screenwriter Sergio Sanchez accomplish is to tell a story that simultaneously follows and breaks the narrative rules. The tsunami hits within the film’s first 15 minutes, at which point – this isn’t a spoiler – Henry and the younger two boys (Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast) disappear and Maria takes center stage with the eldest son, Lucas (relative newcomer Tom Holland, in one of the year’s very best performances). This narrative doesn’t unfold concurrently, like a TV drama, cross-cutting between multiple stories. Bayona and Sanchez trust the characters to guide them through the story, and the perfect balance is organically struck.

From that expertly mounted screenplay to its pitch-perfect performances to Bayona’s stunning direction, The Impossible is a masterfully composed film on every level, in every concentration.

From that expertly mounted screenplay to its pitch-perfect performances to Bayona’s stunning direction, The Impossible is a masterfully composed film on every level, in every concentration. But what elevates it into a sphere of true cinematic greatness is that it fuses those elements to craft an immersive emotional experience. Certain films function like an extension of the soul, tapping into humanity directly. Most films are merely observers of humanity; the great ones are active participants in the human experience. This one charts a path from the screen directly to our hearts. As Lucas fields requests from desperate families to search for their missing kin, we cling to the hope that he might find just one. As Henry is forced to entrust his young boys to the goodness of strangers so he can search for his own missing kin, we recognize the contradiction of risking further loss in order to desperately seek. As Maria, ravaged in critical condition, reaches out to the equally wounded woman on the cot next to her, we realize the depths of human connection even in the most dire of circumstances. And in the aftermath of a tragedy, as some experience the greatest catharsis of reconciliation, we are reminded of the terror that we emerged from, and the stark reality it’s not over…and that others will never experience such jubilation.

Bayona, whose first feature, The Orphanage, struck a similarly human note inside its horror genre trappings, cleverly uses his genre skills to infuse this film with uncommon intensity. Early sequences play out like thrilling set pieces, yet the focus never wavers from the human element of the crisis. As the story transitions to the struggle in the disaster’s wake, Bayona reaches the kind of grandly emotional cinematic territory only reached for by the likes of Spielberg at his best – except he doesn’t shy away from the uncompromising reality of such a heinous tragedy, from the widespread destruction to the epidemic of desperation to the unfortunate truth that the conflict doesn’t end even if our characters’ story does. The Impossible is a living, breathing document – a testament to both the frailty and strength of the human condition, a reminder of how small we are, and how large.

96/100 ~ MASTERFUL. The Impossible is an organic, breathing entity that charts a path from the screen directly to our heart.

Jason McKiernan

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Awards Pundit & Senior Film Critic. I married into the cult of cinema at a very young age - I wasn't of legal marriage age, but I didn't care. It has taken advantage of me and abused me many times. Yet I stay in this marriage because I'm obsessed and consumed. Don't try to save me -- I'm too far gone.