Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, Michelle Fairley, Tom Holland, Paul Anderson, Frank Dillane, Joseph Mawle, Edward Ashley, Sam Keeley, Osy Ikhile, Gary Beadle, Jamie Sives, Morgan Chetcuti, Charlotte Riley, Nicholas Jones, Donald Sumpter, Richard Bremmer, Jordi Mollà, Victor Solé, Nordin Aoures, Santi López, Christian Esquivel, Harry Jardine, Jamie Michie, Andy Wareham, Mark Southworth, Frans Huber, Christopher Keegan, Stephanie Jacob, Kierron Quest, Michael Cronin, Martin Wilde, Nick Tabone, Luca Tosi.
Truth is stranger than fixation, obsession harder to control than fiction and somewhere in between these polar states of passionate mania, the leviathan lurks, waiting patiently to sink the dreams of those that chase it, it takes the truly obsessed to hunt down the vision and it takes the survivor to understand that some delusions are just too big to handle.
Cinematically, there is almost nothing to big surely for director Ron Howard to handle, a man with huge visions himself for what would work on the big screen and from the vastness of space in Apollo 13 and the giant egos that need to work in order to succeed in Formula One, they perhaps don’t come any bigger, more fully loaded with the symbolism of obsession that that of the story of the crew of the Essex whaling ship from Nantucket that became the inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, in the fascinating and extravagantly shot In the Heart of the Sea.
Although shot with the arrogance of the times, the valour of adventure at the helm and the supreme confidence of the age in humanity’s mastery of the world and the creatures that live within it, the humility of the film is what drives the viewer to become gripped, embroiled in the self importance and battle of wits between two men and the twin monsters that stalks them, obsession and the great white whale.
Dedication to a film is to be expected, especially when it comes to the portrayal of true events, yet for the crew involved in making this film, in going even beyond that of the style and influence of the classic Moby Dick, the dedication is almost symbolic of the heart of the picture. Cillian Murphy as Matthew Joy, Chris Hemsworth as the heroic Owen Chase and Joseph Mawle as Benjamin Lawrence all give so much in terms of their acting souls to the film, that the rigorous diets the cast were placed upon to show the starvation the men of the Essex were forced to endure after the sinking of their ship, made them not only seem haunted but close to wraithlike, ethereal passengers in the celluloid passing of extreme devotion.
It may be seen as sacrilegious to even say it but In the Heart of the Sea should be viewed as even taking on and beating hands down the film version of Moby Dick in terms of its presence, stature and narrative, for truth is much stranger than fiction and for the crew of the Essex which inspired one of the finest books of the 19th Century, their truth still resonates across time, the endurance shown to survive an ordeal the key to obsession.
Ian D. Hall