The Perfect Storm
(2000)
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Based on the engrossing nonfiction work by Sebastian Junger about the Andrea Gail--a commercial swordfishing boat that was lost at sea in October 1991--Wolfgang Petersen's THE PERFECT STORM brings the pages to life. The movie features a big-name cast (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg) playing the gruff, edgy fishermen in the Gloucester, Massachusetts, port, as well as close-up camera shots of the boats moored on the wintry docks. Viewers are drawn into the closely knit New England community that is struck speechless by a fierce nor'easter made from three merging hurricanes. Meteorologists call it the Perfect Storm. |
This truly tempestuous drama has to be the most waterlogged film since Titanic. (Those prone to mal de mer should take sick bags along with them.) Based on a true story, it concerns the Andrea Gail, a fishing vessel that, while sailing in the North Atlantic in 1991, was caught up in the 20th century's worst storm. A stubbled George Clooney and a smooth-talking Mark Wahlberg, last seen together in Three Kings, head the crew, while director Wolfgang Petersen, who made the submarine epic Das Boot, takes a deep breath and plunges the audience in and out of skyscraper-tall waves.
Halliwell's Film Guide
There are some astonishing visual moments here Ð notably the small boat attempting to climb an impossibly high wave Ð but the crew members, each equipped with a personal crisis to fill in the gaps between the waves, are no more than stereotypes so that th