★★★
Ron Howard likes his films with emotions writ large, speeches inspirational, and men as manly as possible.
Drenched as much in testosterone as in brine, his latest takes lofty literary inspirations and reduces them to little more than machismo and soaring strings. As the title implies, however, there is something more potent hidden within this hulking beast’s heart.
Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) seeks out the last remaining survivor of a lost whaling ship as research for his novel, Moby Dick. The shipman, Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), recounts the story of his time aboard the Essex, and how the ship was destroyed by a white whale of unprecedented size.
This is not the great American novel, but the ‘true’ events that led to its inception. Its source material, Nathaniel Philbrick’s book, draws from the tales told by Nickerson and the ship’s first mate, Owen Chase (played in the film by Chris Hemsworth). There’s plenty of opportunity for artistic licence, which Howard and screenwriter Charles Leavitt use to fill in the necessary acts of sacrifice, hubris and loss.
It must be said that the accents, difficult though they may be, are all over the shop. The cast is a mix of Aussies, Brits and Americans, and sounds like it. It’s an enormous cast (including numerous Game Of Thrones alumni), but no one story is so distinct or complicated as to evade attention. Even Cillian Murphy’s drinking problem manages to sustain at least a passing emotional investment.
The overall tone of the film is painted so thickly as to be somewhat suffocating. Exposition rears its ugly head frequently, and there’s little emotion to be felt other than those you can hear Howard whispering into your ear. The music, especially, is so stock-standard ‘epic’ as to completely forgettable.
But there are a few shining moments that pierce through, especially in the whaling sequences. The complex emotions of the hunt are treated with a distinctly modern sensibility that the post-Blackfish audience will certainly appreciate: we cannot shut off our sense of disgust at seeing what we now know to be peaceful, intelligent creatures slaughtered en masse, and Howard is eager to show he understands.
There’s also something simultaneously thrilling and annoying about the prevalence of wild, spinning GoPro shots and action cuts designed to produce seasickness in the audience. Sometimes they are effective, other times not – an early trip inside a dead whale is a gruesome personal favourite.
Like the tale on which it is based, In The Heart Of The Sea feels more like the prelude to greatness than greatness itself, but it is an enjoyable adventure.
In The Heart Of The Seais in cinemas now.
