Kentish Express Ashford & District - What's On
FILM OF THE WEEK
The Shades of Grey trilogy comes to an end, Colin Firth plays an amateur yachtsman who vowed to sail single-handed around the world, Clint Eastwood directs a reallife story of heroism and there’s a race against time to find treasures in this week’s releas
THE MERCY (12A)
Fifty years after the Sunday Times launched the Golden Globe Race – offering a £5,000 prize for the first sailor to single-handedly navigate the world non-stop – the fate of one entrant is still anchored in uncharted waters.
Amateur yachtsman Donald Crowhurst set sail on October 31, 1968 in an unfinished triple-hulled yacht laden with untested, newfangled gizmos.
He provided updates on his progress via radio and caught the public imagination by taming stormy seas and gaining ground on more experienced competitors. Unfortunately, his heroics were a web of lies.
Crowhurst was stranded in the Atlantic in a stricken vessel while falsified logs suggested he was making excellent headway and rounding Cape Horn.
On July 10, 1969, his boat was discovered in the Atlantic without any sign of its captain. Authorities presumed Crowhurst had committed suicide because he could no longer maintain the facade of his false voyage.
His body has never been recovered.
The Mercy is a handsome but emotionally waterlogged dramatisation of this fateful journey of selfdiscovery, directed by James Marsh, who captained The Theory Of Everything to Bafta and Academy Award glory.
Romance also bubbles to the surface of Scott Z Burns’s script but there are noticeable leaks when it comes to visualising the deterioration of Crowhurst’s mental state in the claustrophobic confines of the yacht. Donald (Colin Firth) attends a 1968 trade show with his sons Roger (Kit Connor) and James (Finn Elliot) to sell their invention: a nautical navigation device.
The family’s pitch is interrupted by a rousing speech from pioneering sailor Sir Francis Chichester (Simon Mcburney), to launch the Golden Globe Race.
Donald has always been a dreamer and informs his wife Clare (Rachel Weisz) that he intends to take up the mantle, quoting one of his idols, Sir Edmund Hillary.
“Men do not decide to become extraordinary, they decide to accomplish extraordinary things,” he eulogises.
Buoyed by investment from local businessman Stanley Best (Ken Stott), Donald begins construction of a revolutionary triple-hulled yacht christened the Teignmouth Electron.
Media publicist Rodney Hallworth (David Thewlis) and assistant Wheeler (Jonathan Bailey) are drawn to Donald’s underdog story, attempting the impossible against seasoned sailors like Robin Knox-johnston.
They are suckered just like the public.
The Mercy struggles to keep a real-life tragedy afloat.
A ramshackle script bobs between present and past and Weisz is stranded on dry land and off screen for extended periods, so fails to make a significant impact.
Being lost at sea with Firth would be a dream vacation for some people and the Oscarwinning actor delivers a committed performance.
However, I struggled to tether an emotional connection to his tormented sailor.