The Impossible

The Impossible – a film captures the story of a family caught in Thailand during the devastating 2004 tsunami. This movie has the most edge of your seat and emotional disaster sequence in year, unlike many disaster movies such as 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow, this movie didn’t just depend on the special effects, the sequence looks and feels real and new 3D sound technology was truly gripping. The new wave of Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona did a great job to recreat the event. 

This is a good movie and it makes us realize we are all human beings and we need each other. The disaster is just part of the mother nature. But the real disaster is when something happens to us and we are turning our back and ignore it. This film made me feel that I am very fortunate and reminded me to appreciate the people in my life and learn to give. A kind gesture seems so small but it can mean a lot to someone else. You can see in this film the husband and wife are both “good“ people, they are helpful to those least fortunate even if they are in trouble themselves. Maybe because of that, the impossible happened to them. When you do good for others you will be blessed. Maybe that’s the hidden message of this film, we are all saved by grace.

Naomi Watt and Tom Holland did a wonderful job to play the mother and son, but Ewan McGregor is outstanding. He is a powerful actor and a universal one.  From Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge to Big Fish and now in The Impossible, you can see the acting skill of Ewan has grown, he has disappeared into his role so believably that we no longer see him but an ordinary father, a father who doing his best to seek his family. This is a very challenging role as if he just a little over acts then the movie won’t work, especially the big part of the film is focusing on Naomi Watt and her son. He truly became one the greatest actors of our generation, like De Niro did.  

Comparing to many nonsense and waste of time movies of this year such as Total Recall, That’sr My Boy and Battleship, The Impossible brought tears to my eyes and one of the year’s best.