Review: The Finest Hours

There are films that are both well-told and well-crafted, films that are perfectly fine, at times even excellent, but won't linger in the memory. The Finest Hours is such a film. Sturdy and steadfast and resolutely old-fashioned, it recounts the little-known and daring 1952 rescue of the surviving crewmen of the SS Pendleton by a four-man Coast Guard team.

Taking place off the coast of Massachusetts, the film begins with Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) gearing up for his first face-to-face meeting with Miriam (Holliday Grainger), a woman he's gotten to know over the phone for the past several weeks. This opening passage establishes several things. Firstly, Grainger is a vision of loveliness and a genuine talent. Miriam could have easily been a thankless part, but Grainger injects the character with a feistiness of spirit and a beguiling brashness. Secondly, Bernie is shown to be an upstanding man, one who abides by the rules and regulations, and one whose confidence has been compromised by a previous failure.

A year passes before the two agree to marry (Miriam is the one who proposes to Bernie). As he musters the courage to ask his commanding officer (Eric Bana) for permission to take time off for a wedding, the Coast Guard receive word that two tankers have both been split down the middle as a result of a vicious nor'easter. Most of the Coast Guard have been deployed to the SS Fort Mercer because it's less of a suicide mission so when the commanding officer finally makes the decision to send out a search and rescue team to the SS Pendleton, there's only Bernie and his makeshift crew: Richard Livesey (Ben Foster), Andrew Fitzgerald (Kyle Gallner), and Ervin Maske (John Magaro), a seaman who happened to be at the outpost for the night. Bernie must steer his small rescue ship past the brutal Chatham Bar waves in order to make it onto the open ocean, where relatively less turbulent waters await.

Meanwhile, the survivors of the severed Pendleton are being led by an unlikely figure - Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck), the boat's chief engineer whose bookwormish tendencies are at odds with the rest of the men's more reactionary natures. They're not exactly thrilled to be taking orders from this scrawny single guy who believes running the ship aground might be their best chance for survival.

Director Craig Gillespie does a fine job cross-cutting between the two narratives. Despite all the hustle and bustle, there is a leanness to the scenes that maintains and even enhances the momentum. The rescue sequences at sea are appropriately disorienting and well-staged. The scene in which Bernie and his crew are battered by one giant wave after another after another is especially harrowing.

The supporting cast are solid, though Bana puzzles with a patchy Southern drawl. Affleck, a Boston native who wisely does not employ a broad New England accent like most of the cast, is a standout. It takes a while to get used to Pine's subdued performance; one can sense the effort behind the earnestness. Yet the portrayal grows on you. Bernie's fear of another failure, his flickering resolve, the undisguised doubt in his voice as he rouses his crew to keep the faith - all are beautifully conveyed.

The Finest Hours

Directed: Craig Gillespie

Written by: Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson; based on The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman

Starring: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Holliday Grainger, Ben Foster, Eric Bana, John Ortiz, Kyle Gallner, John Magaro, Graham McTavish, Abraham Benrubi, Michael Raymond-James