Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: Fishermen (and a few others) are trapped far at sea during the worst storm of the century; based on a true story.
Biased, pithy comments: I like Wolfgang Petersen, and not just because he's called Wolf. His movies touch on the heroic, epic struggle men have with themselves---what will be my legacy? What are my responsibilities as men? What is loyalty? This movie has some of those same themes, but unlike the action-and-adventure stories he's told before (like ``Air Force One'' and ``Das Boot''), this movie lacks the punch of that theme, despite using it as a note in its soggy symphony. Instead, the moral of this story is, like, don't go fishing in October, or maybe maintain your ice machine, or even don't be unlucky. Once you're past that (and the initial 30 minutes of sunny scenes on the Atlantic coast as they prepare to cast off---it's kind of like an extended sequence where cops in danger talk abstractly about the good times before setting out to fight their enemies), it becomes a beautifully-shot wild ride of men vs. the sea that signifies not very much. As a true story, I forgive it for not conforming well to traditional storytelling. Clooney has learned not to look at the ground while acting, Reilly plays a character part he's good at, and Mastrantonio didn't make me annoyed with her, which means she must have done something extraordinary. Is it a finely-crafted film? Yup. Is it at times needlessly sentimental? Yup. Is it a hoary weather tale about nothing else but boats, the sea, and fish? Yup. You might like it, and it's rarely boring.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, Karen Allen, William Fichtner, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen