Colin Firth charms in true-life drama ‘The Mercy’

If the name Donald Crowhurst doesn’t ring a bell — and really, unless you’re a sailing aficionado or a “Jeopardy!” champion, there’s no reason it should — then you might at first mistake Colin Firth’s character in “The Mercy” for a real-life hero custom-built for a Hollywood feel-good story.

You would be oh so wrong.

In 1968, Crowhurst was a struggling entrepreneur selling navigational gadgets to the yacht set when the

of London announced its Golden Globe Race, a contest to circumnavigate the globe, solo, without putting into port once.

Though he was only an amateur sailor, he heard the siren call of adventure, the chance to achieve a historic first, and hurled himself into a creative frenzy. He lines up a business sponsor and press agent and begins constructing a

‘The Mercy’

Great Fair James Marsh. Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis.

Not rated.

Screening for one night at select theaters on Dec. 6. Tickets available at themercy.film.

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boat bristling with innovations he believes will give him an edge on competition, despite all their experience, money and aristocratic panache.

It’s the kind of single-minded pursuit of a dream that we love to celebrate in Western culture, even though we must know, deep down, that for every story of unlikely triumph there are a thousand cautionary tales about hubris and ruination. We just don’t tell those stories.

Director James Marsh is best known for his documentaries “The Theory of Everything” and “Man on Wire,” both about visionary outliers. The fictionalized “The Mercy” turns the coin from shiny heads to tragic tails in an engrossing character study of an ordinary man whose extraordinary ambition proves his undoing.

Firth’s easy British charm and disarming sincerity, as well as the palpable affection he creates with Rachel Weisz as Crowhurst’s long-suffering wife, are crucial in getting the audience to invest in the story. Otherwise, it might be hard to root for a man who risks not only his life but the title to his home, potentially leaving his three children fatherless and homeless, all in the name of becoming the kind of “man” they can proud of.

“The Mercy” is also a refreshing reminder that the allure of fame is nothing new. The always-great David Thewlis carries the weight of this theme playing a reporter turned publicity flack who is really just doing his job when he starts embroidering Crowhurst’s legend before he has even put out to sea.

As for our would-be hero, he knows he’s in over his head right away. Starting last and hoping to make up time with his state-of-the-art designs, he instead finds himself bailing water from his not-quite-finished craft and fairly limping across the Atlantic.

If he turns back, he loses everything, but he knows he will never survive the stormy seas beyond the Cape of Good Hope.

Firth remains in low gear throughout his character’s transition from fuzzy dreamer to desperate schemer to mad transcendental poet. It takes a bit of voiceover to get the job done, but Firth’s steadfast refusal to chew scenery turns out to be the key to his performance. Whatever fire is driving him, we only see the shadow that it casts.