Cert 12A
117 mins
BBFC advice: Contains scenes of intense threat
Mrs W loved The Finest Hours. "Those scenes at sea were fantastic. It's a definite 9/10!", she exclaimed as walked away from Nottingham Cineworld.
I reluctantly dampened her ardour.
"Oh, come on. What about the melodramtic romance and the girl with the immovable wavy hair and stick-on lipstick?".
Mrs W was having none of it. She rated The Finest Hours better than Spotlight.
I am insisting she goes to have her head examined.
In my view, this was a movie which was on the cusp of greatness but was doused by a great dollop of Disney sugar.
Craig Gillespie's film is the true story of an attempted rescue by a coastguard off America's Cape Cod where an oil tanker broke in two during a blizzard in 1952.
Chris Pine plays the shy coastguard skipper Bernie Webber who led the mission on the same night as agreeing to marry his feisty girlfriend (Holliday Grainger).
Eric Bana is the coastguard commander who sends him to what seems to be certain death and Ben Foster is his right-hand man on the boat which has to drive into the face of the storm.
They are all in decent form but The Finest Hours greatest acting plaudits should go to Casey Affleck. He plays the engineer of the stricken tanker with typical conviction.
However, Mrs W is right. The reason that Craig Gillespie's film will live in the memory is because of its scenes at sea.
The huge, crashing waves are so realistic in 3D that I feared members of the audience suffering seasickness.
Why Disney had to dilute a film of potentially epic proportions with a overwrought romance was beyond me.
Reasons to watch: the scenes at sea are breathtaking
Reasons to avoid: the unnecessary romance
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 7.5/10