Ron Howard made '13 Lives' for Amazon Prime, his previous film 'Hillbilly Elegy' was made for Netflix and Disney+ is doing a sequel series for his late 80's fantasy film 'Willow', the director is firmly ensconced in a streaming stage.
Streaming water is the villain of '13 Lives', an unexpected pre monsoon season storm causes flooding, trapping a youth soccer team and their coach in a cave in rural Thailand. You might remember this true story from the summer of 2018, people came from around the world to help including British cave rescue divers here played by Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and an almost unrecognizable Vigo Mortensen.
Finding the 13 survivors dosen't prove too difficult for the Brits, geeting them out is far more complicated as it involves a trip that takes hours underwater. The chance of the boys panicking is just too great so an unorthodox solution is hit on. Joel Edgerton's character is an anesthesiologist for a day job, so they knock the kids and their coach out, wrap them up tightly, fasten air tanks, and swim them out unconscious. It's quite the achevment.
The story is compelling though its told mostly on a technical level, the 'how they did it'. The 'why they did it' is obvious though the characters aren't plumbed at any great depth, despite their diving under water. This is very much of the docudrama school, an approach to story which can be kind of dry, even when the characters get wet. It's still good though I couldn't come up with a 3rd pun. Technically very well handled and it's neat to see that part of the world featured in a human interest story. This is "best of humanity' stuff, though at times can feel rather surfacy. There's that third pun. ***
No comments:
Post a Comment