A terrific adventure movie directed by Ron Howard, whose movies I generally don't like. Here, though, he has come up with a very entertaining film and a nice, intelligent take on Moby Dick.
The movie's ingenious framing device has a young Hermann Melville (played by Ben Whishaw) in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1850 trying to interview an initially reluctant old shipwreck from a whaling boat, expecting he will give him some interesting material for his new book. The shipwreck (played by Brendan Gleeson) finally is enticed (a bit by money and a bit by the pleadings of his wife) to tell Melville the haunting story of the Essex, which really happened some thirty years earlier. The movie then goes, in a flashback that lasts for the rest of its running time, to tell that story: Chris Hemsworth is Owen Chase, the temperamental first mate, who comes from a working class background, has a lot of experience in successful whaling and wants to become a captain for the next mission. But the whaling company decides to give the captaincy to the young, snobbish George Pollard (played by Benjamin Walker, who looks a lot like a young Colin Firth), who happens to be the son of one of the owners, and will soon shown himself to be insecure and inexperienced. As the old, wooden boat weathers its first storm in the Atlantic, it is clear that Pollard' seafaring abilities are no match for Chase. The Essex then crosses to the Pacific to hunt whales, but the whaling grounds are depleted. On advice from an old sailor they met at a stop in Ecuador, Pollard decides to go 2,000 miles west of South America, a very remote place far from any regular ships at the time. There they will eventually find a large shoal of whales, but also more than they bargained for (I won't reveal more about the plot, but being a take on Moby Dick you will probably imagine which way it will go).
Entertainingly and stunningly filmed (Howard had the benefit of a large budget), the only drawback is that the constant moving of the camera during the sea scenes might make you a bit dizzy at times.
The movie's ingenious framing device has a young Hermann Melville (played by Ben Whishaw) in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1850 trying to interview an initially reluctant old shipwreck from a whaling boat, expecting he will give him some interesting material for his new book. The shipwreck (played by Brendan Gleeson) finally is enticed (a bit by money and a bit by the pleadings of his wife) to tell Melville the haunting story of the Essex, which really happened some thirty years earlier. The movie then goes, in a flashback that lasts for the rest of its running time, to tell that story: Chris Hemsworth is Owen Chase, the temperamental first mate, who comes from a working class background, has a lot of experience in successful whaling and wants to become a captain for the next mission. But the whaling company decides to give the captaincy to the young, snobbish George Pollard (played by Benjamin Walker, who looks a lot like a young Colin Firth), who happens to be the son of one of the owners, and will soon shown himself to be insecure and inexperienced. As the old, wooden boat weathers its first storm in the Atlantic, it is clear that Pollard' seafaring abilities are no match for Chase. The Essex then crosses to the Pacific to hunt whales, but the whaling grounds are depleted. On advice from an old sailor they met at a stop in Ecuador, Pollard decides to go 2,000 miles west of South America, a very remote place far from any regular ships at the time. There they will eventually find a large shoal of whales, but also more than they bargained for (I won't reveal more about the plot, but being a take on Moby Dick you will probably imagine which way it will go).
Entertainingly and stunningly filmed (Howard had the benefit of a large budget), the only drawback is that the constant moving of the camera during the sea scenes might make you a bit dizzy at times.