The Impossible

Finally, in this flood of dry and by-the-numbers award catchers, there is a film with heart that you can enjoy without a theoretical analysis. Impressive, intense, brilliantly made (the tsunami scene!) and touching like nothing in many years. Of course, sometimes the story is very clearly modified for the needs of the script (the casual mass reunion reminded me a little to the similarly made-up phone call in Argo). But when it works so well, who cares. (06/01/2013)

As long as it focuses on the civil opening and subsequent perfect audiovisual experience, J.A. Bayona scores with practically every shot. And yet the touching moments in the second half and them missing each other in the rescue center, to my own surprise, ended up passing me by as well. I can only see and acknowledge the strength in The Impossible; I don't actually feel it. That said, it doesn't detract from the amazing performances of the entire family. (12/02/2013)

A very, very, very good film. Strong, sensitive, appropriately dramatic and perhaps even authentic (or so it seemed). The performances of the adults and children were top-notch, the director conjured up almost "Malick-esque" moments at times (the meditative music also helped) and I blinked only a few times during the whole 113 minutes to make sure I would avoid missing anything. I really liked the fact that we learned only the bare essentials about the main characters at the beginning, and that the script avoided any flashbacks to the happy past or shots of the grieving relatives somewhere on the other side of the world. It is a pity that the DVD was a bit sloppy, because instead of the announced Czech subtitles and Czech subtitles for the deaf, it offered only the latter, and so I found the messages in square brackets quite distracting. For example, before the wave hit I read [strange sounds...] and then countless times [music...].__P.S. Do not read the content! (04/05/2014)

Due to the lack of a longer introduction (Titanic) or continuous flashbacks (127 Hours) that would tell us more about the characters and make us relate to them, I just wasn’t all that emotionally invested in The Impossible. Watching the characters screaming the names of their loved ones and falling into their arms in protracted, dramatically edited scenes didn’t help in this respect. The film is well made and decently acted, but it is rather formulaic, without a powerful message or well-developed psychological basis of the characters. The main musical motif is beautiful, but they didn’t have to use it every ten minutes. (07/02/2013)

Neither a pumped up eye-candy blockbuster, nor unnecessarily split emotions made in Spain, but it brings out the good from both. From the very first shots, you can see J.A. Bayona has talent, and the action sequence with the tsunami sweeps you away with its breathtaking visuals and uncompromising authenticity and clarity. The middle and final search part is a bit weaker in terms of both the script and pacing, but it still holds onto the necessary big emotions and, thanks to the capable director's hand, it doesn't slip into sentimentality, and when it does, only marginally, which can be endured. Naomi Watts is the best actress of our time. (15/07/2015)