The Finest Hours

Image Source

The Finest Hours is the story of a Coast Guard rescue at sea, and stars Chris Pine, Casey Aflleck, and Eric Bana. Based on a story and cast like this, I was excited to see this movie. I wanted to know what The Finest Hours had to offer. The cast feels hit and miss to me. Chris Pine is the best actor in the movie. He actually puts his all into his performance. I also want to compliment Casey Affleck, who does the same thing. A lot of the actors playing the crew ship didn’t work so well for me. They should’ve put a lot more emotion into their performances than they did. Unfortunately, the story is nowhere nearly as engaging as it should be. It’s kind of slow and dull. When the ship actually gets stuck, I felt little to no investment in what was happening. This moment lacked the intensity it really needed. This movie’s biggest issue is easily the writing. The first fifteen to twenty minutes of the movie are dedicated to building the romance between Chris Pine and Holliday Grainger. The problem is the writing doesn’t really make it feel natural, so much as corny. The cinematography didn’t work so well for me either. I understand what they were trying to go for. The movie takes place in 1952. The reason it doesn’t work for me is because it just looks drab. On the other hand, I loved the production design that went into the ship itself. There’s sort of a grungy, grimy look and feel to it. It looks like an oil tanker. The costume design is solid enough to. The costumes actually do have that early 1950s look to them. Overall, the best word I feel describes this movie is bland. Some actors put their all into their performances, while others don’t. The costumes and set design are strong, while the writing, directing, and cinematography were corny and bland. The Finest Hours had a lot of potential to tell a fantastic story, but just didn’t seem to know how to tell said story. 

5 / 10