Before the flood - and after: The Impossible

Though the end is never in doubt, The Impossible, a pan-European production (in English) that follows the travails of a family of five caught in the 2004 Thai tsunami as they fight to survive and to find one another in the devastation and chaos, is a real nail-biter with some truly incredible scenes of terror and destruction. The smashing of the waves on the beach community, the long toss through the roaring water as the mom, Maria (Naomi Watts), tries desperately to stay near her oldest son, the horrifying scenes afterwards as they make their way, scared and badly injured, with no shoes, minimal garments, across a ruined plain - just harrowing to watch, painful. Perhaps even more horrifying are the scenes in the overcrowded hospital, the tent communities, the refugee centers, as Watts fights for her life and as many others try to find their loved ones and to get word of their survival - or of the death of others - to those back home. I only wish the film had been shot with more of a documentary feel - it is based on the true survival story of one (Spanish?) family - but it's obvious that the filmmakers were hoping to reach a wider audience (hence, the transposition to an English family, with star lead actors, Watts, who is excellent as always, and MacEwan - sp?) and to the emphasis on high emotion and melodrama: I hated the soaring orchestral score, and I felt the reunion scenes were emotionally over the top. Nevertheless, I realize I'm not the typical moviegoer, so I appreciate the nod to commercial conventions - and there's enough going on in this movie to overcome these, for me, drawbacks. They managed tremendous verisimilitude in creating the landscape of destruction and in simulating the horrifying minutes after the tsunami, the pace is generally good, lots of dramatic moments that within the context seem credible. At the end, we see a brief snapshot of the family on whom this movie is based - I'd like to know more about them; I suspect their outcome wasn't quite as good as the outcome we see in the movie (though Watts's full recovery left in some doubt, which I did admire).