Friday night! Party night! Yay!
Except I have to work the next day at six in the morning, I can’t see my girlfriend because she has her kids and I have had a really long week and am tired. There is a mathmatical formula:
Friday Night – (Work Next Day + No GF + Tired) = Netflix
The movie I watched was “Abandoned” (not to be confused with “The Abandoned” which is a horror movie). This film was writeen by Stephanie Johnson and directed by John Laing. It stars Dominic Purcell, Peter Feeney, Owen Black and Greg Johnson. If you noted the accents, you would be right. It was made in New Zealand.
The movie is based on a true story and is about the 1989 plight of the boat Rose Noelle. This boat was crewed by four men, only one of which had any experienced as a sailor. The ship was hit by a rouge wave after a storm and flipped upside down. The sailors had to control their fears to try to stay alive until they could be discovered by a passing ship or plane. It is about how they survived at sea for 119 days even though they were low on water and food. They finally found rescue come from the sea itself (if you do not know the story, I won’t spill the beans though one can look it up).
This was a great story. Reminds me to review a book I read “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why” by Laurence Gonzales. All of the elements that he describe happen to the human psyche during a disaster and what is needed to survive are shown in this movie. You can feel the panic the men have and there is an air of claustrophobia at being stuck in such a tiny area. I even felt elated when they were finally able to get out of the hull of the boat to sit in the sun but the hopelessness of seeing nothing but ocean.
It was interesting to see how they were able to turn the boat from a ship wreck to the temporary home that the ship would become until they were rescued. Every time they seemed to be at the lowest point, they managed to have nature save them in some way (the discovery of food and water). And when they saw their rescue, even though they knew it would take a lot of time to complete, I felt happy for them.
The end brought up some of the controversy that occurred when they were found. The authorities did not believe they were missing at all and that they made up the story to get media attention. They were ostracized and ridiculed. It was not until the investigation was complete that it was discovered their story was true.
This was a very good movie even for kids. The acting was average. Some of the characters could get a bit annoying (though I can’t be sure that was not what really happened). But you could relate to the characters and how they would feel. The camera work was great. It brought all the sensations the survivors had to the viewer. I thought they could have dropped the investigation at the end. It just was not developed enough and made the movie longer but it was good to see how the characters lives moved on instead of reading the blurb at the end which happens in most truth-based movies.
I give this movie a 4 out of 5.
