The national geographic documentary about this miracle event was so good I was so ready to be disappointed by this and thought it would be a cheap Hollywood attempt at making money out of such an emotional but ultimately inspiring real life event. I was so pleased to be wrong. It is a long film but it never drags. The swimming through the cave shots get a bit repetitive and were not done as well as National Geographic managed to do them - they were too dark and obscured. But everything about this felt deeply respectful to authenticity, the facts of the event, the people involved, the victims, etc. Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen are absolutely brilliant in their attempts to accurately portray the mannerisms and personalities of the normal unremarkable but remarkable British heroes who led the expedition. Colin Farrell the actor completely disappeared, you could not discern any of him in his voice or his mannerisms. And this was without wearing any makeup or costume. Absolutely outstanding. Viggo was equally good though not quite as impressive. But the energy they both carried themselves with was one of utter respect for the real life heroes they were portraying. And this imbued out to all of the production. There was no hollywood sensationalism. Just respect. And that was deeply felt. And because of that all the raw emotion of the ordeal was allowed to shine through organically. One of the most emotional hollywood films I have seen in sometime, on par with the documentary. This is not to be underestimated. We live in a crazy sensationalist world where everything is completely overblown and catastrophised because we are so difficult to shock and surprise these days because with the worst and best of humanity available everyday at our fingertips on the internet we think we have seen it all. So to take this approach was very brave and extremely refreshing and was what Hollywood and audiences have drastically been missing. Hopefully this will inspire more films, real and fiction, to a higher form of authenticity for the future. We so badly need it.