Firth makes waves on the high seas
THE MERCY (Cert 12A; 102mins)
IF ANYONE was ever hoist with their own petard it was Donald Crowhurst. Fifty years ago Crowhurst entered a newspaper competition to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe non-stop.
Crowhurst had “never been further than Falmouth” but convinced himself it was entirely possible for him to succeed even though the race would test the mettle of world-class sailors such as Robin Knox-Johnston. But he mortgaged his home and bet his family’s future on the race so that by the time he finally set sail from English shores, there was quite literally no turning back.
The Crowhurst story is a very English tragedy: a tale of foolish pride, stinging shame and the terrible consequences of deciding that the best course of action is to keep calm and carry on.
Even though you may know how the story ends, The Mercy brings out all the desperation of an impossible situation.
The ever-reliable Colin Firth plays Crowhurst as an amiable, diffident individual with the manner of an absent-minded professor. The 1968 race is a combination of a midlife crisis and a call to arms for a man who feels he has nothing to show for his life so this is his dream opportunity to show the world what he can achieve.
His decision to seize the chance to travel from zero to hero makes him a very flawed and human character but it also makes him entirely deluded and foolishly pig-headed.
The Mercy has the feel of an old-fashioned Ealing-style drama. You can imagine Kenneth More in the title role, probably with a pipe clenched between his teeth. There is also a very fine cast of supporting actors lending colour to the tale with David Thewlis on entertaining form as breezy, irrepressible press agent Rodney Hallworth and Ken Stott as “Caravan King” Stanley Best, the man who provided a good deal of funding for Crowhurst.
Rachel Weisz is outstanding as Crowhurst’s loyal wife Clare, forever standing by her man, offering all the right words of love and support. But her eyes
betray the terror of a woman who can see catastrophe in the offing but is powerless to stop it.
Crowhurst’s decision to design and build his own boat incurred endless expense and caused repeated delays. There were plenty of chances for him to call it a day and concede the folly of what he’d planned but everyone seems to wait for an admission of defeat that he feels unable to make. He finally leaves on the very last date permitted under the competition rules.
Crowhurst’s solo voyage is the stuff of heroism and futility. Every day of delay, every cheery message of reassurance sent home and his dishonest claims of travelling immense distances in unfeasibly short times painted him into a corner.
But despite all the mistakes he made, Crowhurst emerges as a desperately sympathetic figure in a stirring salute to a man whose reach so wildly exceeded his grasp.
THE 15:17 TO PARIS (Cert 15; 94mins)
IN 2015 three gung-ho Good Samaritans risked their lives to thwart a terrorist attack. Their story and lifelong friendship form the basis of director Clint Eastwood’s sincere, heartstring-tugging docudrama The 15:17 To Paris.
Unusually Eastwood has enlisted the heroic trio to play themselves. It sounds like a gimmick but it works.
Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos are all photogenic fellows and Stone in particular feels like a natural-born actor. He has the biggest role as a dedicated, hard-working young man who is convinced greatness lies in his future although there is little in his childhood to suggest anything out of the ordinary. That changes when he joins the military and starts to shape up.
Eastwood provides glimpses of the nightmare to come before he focuses on the childhood bonds that would link the trio for life. When he finally depicts the attempted terrorist attack on a Paris-bound train it is violent, blood-soaked and disturbing.
In typical Eastwood fashion this is low-key, unshowy storytelling celebrating heroic deeds and exhorting us all to fight evil. The film may be corny and a little gauche but there is no arguing with its sentiments.
LOvELESS (Cert 15; 124mins)
RUSSIA is the last place on earth you’d want to visit after watching Loveless.
Andrey Zvyagintsev’s bleak, brutal drama is like a howl of despair about the state of the nation. Filmed in and around St Petersburg, it captures the dying gasps of a toxic relationship. Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) can no longer stand the sight of each other and the temperature of their relationship alternates between icy contempt and burning anger. Both have moved on emotionally, leaving their 12-year-old son Alyosha (Matvey Novikov) as collateral damage.
Packing him off to boarding school seems their preferred option but everything changes when Alyosha goes missing.
Initially neither parent pays much attention but when the search builds into a manhunt for the missing child they have a fleeting chance to consider their choices and the consequences.
This is a shocking, compelling portrait of a heartless world, told with a surgeon’s precision.
TAD THE LOST ExPLORER AND THE SECRET Of KING MIDAS (Cert U; 85mins)
ARCHAEOLOGY student Tad Jones will never give Indiana Jones cause for sleepless nights but he has proved popular enough to merit a sequel.
Tad The Lost Explorer And The Secret Of King Midas is another colourful animated adventure undemanding enough to please younger children.
Tad (voiced by Trevor White) is still juggling his studies with a construction job when he is invited to Las Vegas by explorer Sara (Alex Kelly). She has discovered the legendary Midas papyrus, proving that the ancient king really could turn everything he touched to gold.
When Sara is kidnapped by Jack Rackham (Ramon Tikaram), the hapless Tad sets off on a rescue mission with a chatterbox Mummy and a sarcastic bird called Belzoni.
PAD MAN (Cert 12A; 140mins)
IT MAY seem hard to believe at times but Pad Man is based on true events.
Arunachalam Muruganantham (played by Akshay Kumar) is an Indian villager inspired to greatness by the everyday trials of his wife and family.
Incensed that the women he loved were obliged to use old rags for menstrual hygiene, he dedicated himself to inventing a machine that would make low-cost sanitary pads.
His quest shocked polite society and challenged all kinds of taboos. An epic story told with a broad, crowd-pleasing exuberance that is hard to resist.