'In The Heart Of The Sea' Review

In The Heart Of The Sea tells the story that inspired Moby-Dick detailing the events that occur to the crew of the Essex, a whale ship. Now the premise of the film and it's trailers certainly made it seem as though it is an action adventure film on the high seas but these are very misleading. While there is indeed some action in the film, it is very limited to a few whale attacks which are quite enjoyable.  Aside from this the film is very dialogue driven, although at times it was very difficult to hear the dialogue over the score and the sound effects at sea. The fact that the film is so dialogue driven cripples the film as it makes the film drag at times and made it seem quite boring. This wasn't helped by the lack of characterization for the characters, literally none of the characters were very developed or presented with any depth. This hurt the film most during the whale attacks as it dramatically reduced my interest in their survival. The acting on display was very high quality but wasn't quite able to help this issue which lies in the script. Chris Hemsworth did the best he could as the first mate of the ship, Owen Chase, but his character like every other character in the film is bland.  I tried to pay particularly close attention to newcomer Tom Holland, who will be the next incarnation of Spider-Man in Marvel's upcoming Captain America: Civil War, and he did quite well in the role provided for him despite the fact that it was very one note. The rest of the cast is serviceable and didn't ever peek my interest but I was very impressed by the physical changes the cast underwent to actually portray a starved image for the film. Ron Howard directs the film and he really makes a point to capture some gorgeous shots with some fantastic camera work with his cinematography team. Despite all of it's flaws, there is some enjoyment to be found in this film through the performances and camera work. Overall, In The Heart Of The Sea is a decent moviegoing experience but I can't quite recommend the film as it drags throughout with the exposition and then the resolution of the story. If you are interested in seeing a film this weekend I would suggest Creed for adults, The Good Dinosaur for family entertainment and thats if you weren't able to snag a ticket to Star Wars: The Force Awakens of course.

Film Assessment: D