This is the true story of an amazing Coast Guard rescue of an oil tanker in a blizzard in 1952. It has an excellent cast - Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster and Eric Bana. The trailer is harrowing. Unfortunately the picture itself is a mixed bag.

 

The opening sequence details the first date of Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) and Miriam (Holliday Grainger) as they double with his brother and her friend. Miriam has never been on a boat and things build up to the boys suggesting they take her on a fishing boat around the harbor. Bernie gets permission from a boat owner, both couples board the boat…and the story jumps ahead in time. Why all that build up and not show the boat trip?

 

These early sequences are paced incredibly slow and that's a problem. Soon enough the blizzard arrives and Bernie's commanding officer Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana) orders him and Richard Livesey (Ben Foster) to go to the harbor and secure the boats there. You would think there would be a sense of urgency in a blizzard, but Bernie has time for a phone call with Miriam, eats some chili, and has a conversation with some of the other men. Cluff repeats the order, almost as if he never gave it the first time because he doesn't appear annoyed that Bernie is still here, and Bernie goes out. Later when Bernie is ordered to go out to rescue the ship, there is again a lot of time wasted, crucial time when men could be dying aboard the damaged ship, yet there is never a sense of urgency on the Coast Guard side of things.

 

Bernie is sent out on what some regard as a suicide mission. Most predict that he will never make it across the bar and out to sea. And what is even stranger is that he takes such a small vessel on the rescue mission. Regulations say the ship holds 12 including the crew. Yet they are going to rescue an oil tanker and have no idea how many men there are in peril. Ultimately they take everyone which puts 36 on the boat, three times its capacity. There is brief dialogue between Bernie and Richard about this and Richard complains that the steering is slower, but that's it. There are no other issues with this boat being so overloaded.

 

Bernie is a by the book regulations man. He follows order. He doesn't appear to be very confident in himself. Clearly Pine struggles with this role. He is neither charismatic nor engaging and in the end you only admire Bernie because of what he accomplished. The journey with him is a dull one. Pine spends much of his time on the Coast Guard boat next to Foster's Richard. Ben Foster is a brilliant actor but he has few lines and is completely wasted here.  

 

Eric Bana is similarly wasted with perhaps his only standout scene being between he and Miriam when she demands that he call Bernie back. She questions his command and it's a powerful scene.

 

The oil tanker side of things is much more interesting. And had the picture not wasted so much screen time early on, including a sequence of Miriam crashing into a snow bank and having to be picked up and towed out of there, perhaps there could have been more character and relationship building aboard the ship. Casey Affleck is the standout as Ray Sybert who runs the engine room and becomes the reluctant leader on the ship once it has split in half and they have lost all the command. Tensions are high and the men don't agree on a game plan, but luckily there are no "villains" in the mix double-crossing each other. This side of the picture aboard the doomed vessel is far better than the Coast Guard side of things.

 

Director Craig Gillespie loves big, bombastic reveals in THE FINEST HOURS and they work for the most part, but they could be dialed down a bit.

 

There are some great sequences in the picture including the Coast Guard ship struggling to make it over the bar, the men in peril on the ship doing everything they can to run it up on a shoal, and the rescue itself.  

 

THE FINEST HOURS is a mixed bag. There is some wonderful filmmaking going on here, but it is offset with poorly paced scenes and some wasted screentime. If the subject matter appeals to you, then I would recommend it. But if you're going solely because you're a fan of Pine, Foster or Bana, you're wasting your time.