The Impossible
Dir: Juan Antonio Bayona
2012
***
I have mixed feelings regarding The Impossible. My initial fears were that it would be gratuitous, thankfully this wasn't the case. The people and the situation were handled well and in good taste. However, as a film I found it quite frustrating. Director Juan Antonio Bayona used cheap tricks often used in horror films to prolong the tension, there is a level of mistrust felt by keeping information from the viewer which effected my overall enjoyment. When the ending can only go one of two ways, it is important to find new ways of approaching the conclusion and Bayone fails to do this. The child actors are also miscast. Tom Holland is famous for playing Billy Elliot on the stage and unfortunately his performance suffers from being a little too theatrical in its delivery. The other two kids follow suit and take away much of the believability of the overall story. The film was lifted for me thanks to the short but wonderful performance by Geraldine Chaplin.