Director: Ron Howard. Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton. Adventure/Biography. 147 min.
- Generally, I consider Ron Howard a "director-for-hire". Yes, he has had some major hits (A Beautiful Mind, Willow), but based on his filmography, he looks like a guy whom they hire for a project, not him becoming excited about one and going after (like the major auteurs do). Great examples are how he botched the ending of Inferno, based on the third Dan Brown/Robert Langdon novel, and how he was brought in to complete the disaster Han Solo movie. Directors who respect their own status never do things like that.
- That said, Thirteen Lives is a decent film. Based on the real-life 2018 rescue mission of a junior soccer team trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, the film, although quite long, has its moments. There is some interesting character development here, making you feel for the scuba divers who occasionally lose it and break into tears under pressure, or others who are callous to what's at stake and are there just to get a job done. These moments compensate for the movie's flaws, such as when local farmers agree, too rapidly, to have their fields (their entire life investments) flooded to rescue the boys; or when one diver initially is hesitant to go in for one last dive, but then agrees to go without any explanation - as though the movie length was too long and some segments ended up on the cutting room floor.
- My biggest advice, is that if you don't know much about the event (specifically, about the manner and method of which the kids were rescued), don't read anything about it before seeing the movie. Because that part of the story is what took my breath away. That's what Hollywood is loved for, and why the likes of Ron Howard have a job.
MoGo's rating: 7/10
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