I must confess that I’ve never read Moby-Dick.
I know, I know. It may very well be the great American novel. And it’s on my bucket list, I swear. But there's something beyond daunting about a 720-page tome that devotes huge chunks to the minutiae of the whaling industry. Or maybe being told something is good for you instantly makes it not so desirable. Whatever the reason, I have yet to call anyone Ishmael.
So it eases the guilt a little to see In the Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard and opening in Bay area theaters today. After all, the movie tells the true story upon which MD was based, and has as its source material a National Book Award-winning non-fiction book by Nathaniel Philbrick. Surely that counts for something, right? Give me points for trying – and give the movie points also. It may not be as iconic as the original novel, but it certainly gives it a damn good shot.
The story begins in 1850, as a young Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw, so delightful in Spectre) is seeking out an old whaler (Brendan Gleeson) who has serious PTSD from surviving a tragedy that occurred almost 30 years before. Flashback to 1821, and he is but a young scupper who is about to embark on the whaling ship Essex, under the watch of a green captain (Benjamin Walker) and a first mate (Chris Hemsworth) who wants his job. The early part of the film, because it needs some kind of conflict before the big critters show up, is mostly a formulaic pissing contest between the two.
And then the mammals swim into view and the plot kicks into high gear. The whole enterprise is suffused with gorgeous sepia cinematography (courtesy of Oscar winner Anthony Dod Mantle) and the creatures, especially the giant one that capsizes the ship (no spoiler alert there), are stunning examples of the best that CGI has to offer. The resulting back and forth between the animals and the humans builds nicely in momentum, setting the stage for the possibility that anything could happen at any moment.
Not that everything is rosy out on the open water. Hemsworth, who looks impossibly handsome even when severely dehydrated and malnourished, uses an American accent that places his voice so far back in his throat he sounds garbled. The screenplay slips occasionally into modern vernacular (especially in the use of cursing), even though it also has good lines such as “We are supreme beings made in God’s likeness.”
The unlikely idea that the giant whale is chasing them has more than a little bit of the feeling of Jaws 3 about it (which was about a mother shark hunting down the people who killed her young, and had the tag line “This time it’s personal.”). And there is a moment toward the end between Hemsworth and the whale which makes for cool cinema but seems way too obviously made up by the filmmakers.
Still, there is quite a bit to like here. And most surprisingly, the details of running a 19th-century ship, which could be so very off-putting in the book, are shown in loving detail here (and therefore are endlessly fascinating). It kinda, almost, made me want to redouble my efforts to read the original work. If I liked Howard’s movie then maybe I can finally get behind Melville’s Dick and give it a shot. I’ll certainly try – and I’ll let you know how that goes.
In the Heart of the Sea. Opening Dec. 11. Directed by Ron Howard, Starring Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker and Ben Whishaw, Warner Bros., PG-13, Three-and-a-half stars
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2015.