The Impossible

Naomi Watts, Ewen McGregor

Powerful telling of the story of one family's experience when the 2005 tsunami hit the coast of Thailand. The use of effects here was perfect: they realistically re-created the look and feel of such an event without overdoing it. What an incredible experience.

Naomi Watts was superb as usual. She proves once again that she is in the very front rank of contemporary actors and deserves an award for this performance. Also the young boy who played her son-Tom Holland-excelled. I don't know that I've ever seen a better performance by a 12 year old.

There was one problem: toward the end the filmmaker leaned too far into melodrama...using cue music and holding scenes several beats too long. Shame...the story was so strong...it didn't need that stuff.

Still, this was a fine effort overall.

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