In the Heart of the Sea

Dir: Ron Howard

2015

***

They say you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story but I would argue that if an event is worth talking about, you should probably stick to the facts. In the Heart of the Sea is more or less truthful, if not a little exaggerated, but in my opinion it is the films fictional element that lets it down. The story of the Whale-ship Essex is narrated by the ships cabin boy Thomas Nickerson as an old man. Nickerson is retelling the story, for the first time, to a young writer named Herman Melville, who we all know would go on to write the classic novel Moby Dick. In truth, Nickerson's notes recalling the events were found in the 1960s and authenticated in 1980. He would have been in his late forties/early fifties had he'd ever met Melville before Moby Dick was written, so the story doesn't really hold up from the get go. I suppose it is a nice way of introducing the film, it seems the producers felt the need to mention Moby Dick as much as they could to gain interest but personally I think the 'inspiration for..' tagline would have been sufficient, as much as I like Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw and their performances. That said, I'm not sure whether meeting the ships first mate, Owen Chase, would have been a better option. Chase wrote Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex in 1921, just a year after his ordeal. It was the true inspiration for Melville's book. It isn't recorded anywhere that Melville met with any of the survivors of the Essex but telling the film from the perspective of Nickerson, over Chase's, was a sensible move in my opinion. The relationship between Chase and Captain George Pollard is also not quite as it was. The tension between them wasn't as bad as it is in the film and Pollard had been a Captain for eight years and was much older than Chase. Why they wrote such a clichéd class script for the two men is a mystery, it adds nothing to the story and looks rather tired. I'm being fairly critical of the historical details, it is a pet hate of mine when a film like this has so many historical inaccuracies. However, I was more than happy that they went all out when bringing Moby Dick to the big screen. The whale scenes are awesome. Some of the compositions during the action sequences are absolutely stunning and the film suddenly takes on a completely different pace. The build-up suddenly makes sense and was appreciated. For all its faults, it is always entertaining. This is when the adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick's 2000 novel In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whale-Ship Essex really begins to work.  It's all adventure from there on in and I enjoyed it immensely. I can't give it 4 stars because it is riddled with mistakes and pointless ideas, it is saved by the end but it is just a shame they couldn't begin or end the film suitably. Watch it for the middle. It's funny watching Thor, Spider-Man, Scarecrow and  Abraham Lincoln being chased by a massive great whale!