The Impossible

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)

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)

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)

I'm amazed by the design of the disaster - it's a demonstration of what a good filmmaker can do without an army of computers, only by working with perspective and shooting methods. For me, a completely equal affair with the sinking of the ship in Pi and his life smeared with mud and blood. Otherwise - I'm always wondering if the "real story" is just an alibi to excuse the usual schemes and clichés, or if the filmmaker can draw more than a few notorious lessons from the disaster about the fragility of man and the power of humanity (the last one who really captivated me was Danny Boyle and his rock climbing amputation). For me, in key moments The Impossible slips into uncovered exploitation, from which I soon lost all pleasure (sometimes I hesitated whether the tension was still meant seriously - vomiting of eyelashes and blood, which inadvertently looks like a B-movie horror scene). I want to see something more than just what I know from documentaries and the news, even if it's dressed in a masterful form. But the talk about the stars and the melodramatic passing are as if from a different sea than the realistic wave of dirt that so brutally tore me down against my will at the beginning. For Bayon, I actually have words of respect, but he really should be careful about the innocent submission to the expectations of the "genre". And he should try digging deeper, because this film is actually just "disaster tourism", where everything is solved by harmonious love... and good insurance. (30/01/2013)

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)