Anthony Breznican: Best of 20122 of 11
#10: The Impossible
Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor are the parents of three boys on vacation for Christmas when the 2004 tsunami hits and separates them. We follow Watts and her eldest son (a remarkable Tom Holland) in the immediate aftermath of the wave, looking across a smashed, watery landscape as they try to climb one of the few remaining trees, fearing another wave may come soon. They hear a toddler crying – somewhere. Her son wants to keep climbing to safety, but Watts looks at him steadily. “Even if it’s the last thing we do,” is all she says. It’s one of the most crushing moments I’ve ever seen in a movie. I find some moviegoers fretting that The Impossible will be abysmally painful and unpleasant. It’s a tough story to be sure, but director Juan Antonio Bayona and writer Sergio G. Sanchez have also made one of the most graceful, hopeful, and, yes, thrilling movies of 2012.
Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor are the parents of three boys on vacation for Christmas when the 2004 tsunami hits and separates them. We follow Watts and her eldest son (a remarkable Tom Holland) in the immediate aftermath of the wave, looking across a smashed, watery landscape as they try to climb one of the few remaining trees, fearing another wave may come soon. They hear a toddler crying – somewhere. Her son wants to keep climbing to safety, but Watts looks at him steadily. “Even if it’s the last thing we do,” is all she says. It’s one of the most crushing moments I’ve ever seen in a movie. I find some moviegoers fretting that The Impossible will be abysmally painful and unpleasant. It’s a tough story to be sure, but director Juan Antonio Bayona and writer Sergio G. Sanchez have also made one of the most graceful, hopeful, and, yes, thrilling movies of 2012.
TitlesThe Impossible
CountriesUnited Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Israel, India, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Singapore, Turkey, United States
LanguagesEnglish