Edge-of-your-seat thrills in true-to-life rescue drama

“THE FINEST HOURS.” Daring do-or-die mission.

IT IS to director Craig Gillespie’s credit that the events dramatized in “The Finest Hours” may have happened in 1952, but his true-to-life film skillfully takes viewers back in time—and straight into the eye of the storm that endangered the lives of more than 30 seamen and the inexperienced rescue team that attempted to save them from imminent death.

The movie makes you feel like you’re part of its urgently paced clautrophobic action! Yes, “attempted” is the operative word here, to avoid spoiling the “fun but frightful” roller-coaster ride that viewers are guaranteed to experience.

The film follows the daring do-or-die mission that sends Coast Guard servicemen, Bernie Webber (Chris Pine), Richard Livesey (Ben Foster), Ervin Maske (John Magaro) and Andrew Fitzgerald (Kyle Gallner), off on a stormy sea on a 36-foot lifeboat—to rescue the 33 survivors of a troubled 504-foot oil tanker!

But the action doesn’t just take place in the water. There are interconnected stories happening simultaneously—but, the thrills they generate and the clever way their stories are strung together make viewers root for each narrative strand:

The oil tankers’ senior officer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) and his crew are forced to set aside their differences as they valiantly keep their sinking ship afloat until help arrives; Bernie and his boys, who brave the surging waves with a broken compass—and the unconventional romance that raises the stakes for Bernie and his headstrong fiancée, Miriam (Holliday Grainger).

PINE. Intuitive acting choices.

Real and acute danger

Like the Von Trapp family in wartime Austria, the seamen distract themselves by singing reassuring songs as they shake in their seawater-soaked boots—but the danger is real and acute!

Gillespie quickly shuttles the action among these anxiety-stricken groups—but makes sure that each side of the story is fueled by personal tales that make the characters relatable.

Bernie soon realizes that the lifeboat he’s steering in the stormy waters off Cape Cod has limited room to accommodate 33 survivors! What to do? Their ingenuity and never-say-die spirit will make you pray for a miracle to come to their rescue!

The protagonists are hard to second-guess—and it doesn’t hurt that they’re portrayed by Pine, Grainger, Foster and Affleck—who, with intuitive acting choices, make insightful sense of their characters’ sometimes incomprehensible actions and motivations.

The edge-of your-seat thrills in this true-to-life rescue drama aren’t always unpredictable, however. —In fact, you’ll get ticked off by the “unfeeling” Coast Guard commander (Eric Bana) who sends his men on a suicide mission in the guise of duty. He’s supposed to save lives, not send men to their deaths!

But, the film manages to keep its development crisp and compelling. Will Bernie, Ray and their pals sink or swim? You’ll have to join the queue at the cineplexes for the answer!