The Impossible

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. (14/07/2015)

A painful and thorough reconstruction of a great natural catastrophe, delivered mainly through the physical and mental suffering of the protagonists, with whom the viewer feels for until the last second, clinging like a tick to that sliver of hope that is the only thing that helps to keep their sanity in such a situation. I haven't kept my fingers crossed for film characters that much in a long time, and perhaps no film has ever made me cheer not for nature but for helpless and suffering people. When you watch Naomi Watts and see how incredibly real her torn and bruised face looks and every cry of pain feels, you can't help but put your feet up on the sofa and keep watching, even though there is no doubt about the "happy ending". Director Bayona doesn't have to worry about work, because here he squeezed all the juice out of the premise, and judging by the praise from the real people who were there, he squeezed it in a clearly correct and effective way :-) 80% (01/09/2013)

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)

The director is insanely talented and the story is one of the saddest events of the current era. I knew that this was about to be an emotional ride. It’d be weird if it wasn’t. The story that is based on real-life events might be focusing on only one of many families, but at the same time, it reflects the stories of all the families that stayed there and were affected by the tsunami. The filmmaking is so good that I couldn’t even believe how well the director connected CGI with reality. I must admit that at times, I was just gaping at the screen. Well, not at times, more like for two whole hours. The environment was so real that I felt as if the Spanish author truly had some small village flooded so he could shoot this movie to show each and every one of us just how terrible it all looked when the tsunami came. The cherry on top and the reason I decided to give this movie five stars was the moment when I read that the survivors were watching the movie and they said that the atmosphere couldn’t have been any more accurate. Hats off! (18/06/2013)

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)