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One year during college, I was assigned to read Moby Dick during my Thanksgiving break. It didn’t exactly make for an enjoyable holiday weekend. And now, with his Moby Dick movie, In the Heart of the Sea, director Ron Howard takes what I remember as a long and rather excruciating read and turns it into a long and not entirely thrilling 3D adventure.
In the Heart of the Sea tells the true story behind Herman Melville’s classic. While preparing to write his novel, the author (Ben Whishaw) approaches Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), the last living crew member of the Essex, a whaling ship that was attacked by a great white sperm whale in 1820. Still haunted by the event that took place when he was just a boy, he reluctantly opens up about his experiences at sea—and the attack that left the survivors stranded for 90 days.
In the Heart of the Sea takes viewers along with the inexperienced but arrogant captain (Benjamin Walker), his bitter first mate (Chris Hemsworth), and their adventure-seeking crew members on an ill-fated whaling voyage that soon turns into an agonizing battle for survival. There’s plenty of tension and bickering as the ship sets sail—and, really, it’s a story about ego and rivalry almost as much as it’s about whaling. But while a couple of the characters get some basic development in the beginning, it’s not really enough to make audiences truly care about them—which makes the film drag once the characters end up lost at sea.
Of course, the film’s greatest moments are those involving the whales. As the crew members set out in smaller boats in hopes of harpooning one of these gigantic creatures, the footage is often breathtaking—with the sun glistening off the water as pods of whales swim just beneath the surface, dwarfing the whaling boats. It’s a remarkable sight—which is why whale watching tours are still so popular.
These expeditions into whale-filled waters are gripping and dangerous, and the scenes are fittingly noisy and disorienting. Whenever the great white whale attacks, it’s sure to shake viewers up and bring them back into the story. Unfortunately, though, those action-packed scenes are few and far between. The crew members seem to spend more time battling each other and the elements than the whales—and the endless nothingness at sea (both before and after the great whale attacks) makes the film feel even longer than its two-hour runtime.
In the Heart of the Sea does offer some stunning sea-faring footage, but it lacks the development and emotional depth that would make audiences care about the characters during their long and sometimes tiresome voyage. While it’s certainly a harrowing adventure, it isn’t an especially exhilarating one.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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