Review: IN THE HEART OF THE SEA is Beautiful, but Depthless Whale Tale

In drama, there are three types of conflict: man versus man, man versus self, and man versus nature. In Ron Howard's new film, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, Chris Hemsworth and Broadway favorite Benjamin Walker face all three types of conflicts as they battle a vengeful white whale. Loosely based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Nathaniel Philbrick, the film tells the story of the Whaleship Essex, which served as partial inspiration for the Herman Melville classic, MOBY DICK. Though Melville's novel is filled with Romantic language and rich, nuanced themes of class, obsession, and race, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA is a slick, depthless film that removes nearly all historical accuracy from this harrowing and terrifying tale. However, what the film lacks in emotion and authenticity, it nearly makes up for in visual majesty and grandeur.

According to the film, years after the voyage, Melville, played by Ben Whishaw (currently preparing to make his Broadway debut as John Proctor in THE CRUCIBLE), searches out Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), the Essex's former cabin boy, and pleads with him to share the details of the ill-fated journey. Despite his better judgement, Nickerson is convinced by his wife (Michelle Fairley) to tell what he knows. Mrs. Nickerson not only needs the money that Melville is offering, but also knows that her husband has kept buried the horrors of that trip for decades, and needs to get them out.

The Essex was captained by the inexperienced George Pollard (Walker), whom only got the job because of his family connections. His First Mate, Owen Chase (Hemsworth), bitter about having again been passed over for his first captain's assignment, openly questions commands and pits the ship's crew against the captain early on. Unfortunately, Charles Leavitt's screenplay brushes passed much of the conflict with narration and hurried flash-forwards. Like the rest of the personal drama in the film, the adversarial relationship between Pollard and Chase is all too often pushed to the side in favor of the beautiful action to come; perhaps because their rivalry was mostly manufactured for the screen. Throughout the film, both make decisions that cost the crew, leaving each looking like less than an ideal leader.

Having been one of the last whaling ships to depart Nantucket for the season, the Essex survives a squall early in its voyage, thanks to Chase, but a year later has made little headway towards its whale-oil goal. It is then that they defy the warnings of a one-armed Spanish captain, and seek out a remote section of the Pacific where their hunt is foiled by a hyper-aggressive sperm whale hell-bent on taking out the ship and crew that attacked him and his herd. Despite the Essex being destroyed, the whale isn't satisfied and stalks the survivors in their small boats as they search for land. As they battle the elements in their tiny vessels and eventually find an inhospitable island, the crew begins to wrestle with madness, thoughts of suicide, and other unimaginable decisions.

Ultimately, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA aspires to be both a cautionary tale of the power and danger of the wild, and of human pride and ambition. Unfortunately, it doesn't do either of them all that well. The stories and characters, including underused Fairley and Cillian Murphy, are more often than not, glossed over in favor of the gorgeous cinematography from Anthony Dod Mantle, and scenes from of Art Directors Neal Callow, Dean Clegg, Nick Gottschalk, Christian Huband, and Niall Moroney.

The vast seascapes look like impressionistic paintings with swirling clouds and swatches of greens, blues, and whites mixing together across the horizon. While the bastardized story of the Essex provides little more than conventional action thrills, the film's visuals provide some of the most breathtaking on-screen images in recent memory.

Check out the trailer:

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, starring Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, Tom Holland, Brendan Gleeson, Jordi Molla, and more, is now open nationwide, and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and peril, brief startling violence, and thematic material.

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Banner Image: Chris Hemsworth and Benjamin Walker in IN THE HEART OF THE SEA: Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Video Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures