The Impossible is the story of the utterly devastating tsunami of December 2004. It focuses on Henry and Maria and their three boys Lucas, Simon, and Thomas. All five are magnificently acted and their performances carry this film. When the tsunami hits, the family is separated and their urgency to find one another and uncertainty in the others's fates drives the movie and is its true heart. I found the most heart-wrenching moment of the film to be Henry's (the brilliant Ewan McGregor) call to his father-in-law. For the first time we see Henry completely lost, almost hopeless, sobbing into the phone, his words nearly unrecognizable. Then, he composes himself and vows that he'll never stop looking for his wife and son.
The film, of course, examines the destruction of the tsunami and the effect of that disaster on those directly involved. It also shows the dichotomy that kind of chaos can create--some people are focused solely on their own survival, while others are moved to help those around, even when they cannot help themselves. This manifests in the survivors around the family, but also within the family itself. "Even if it's the last thing we do," Maria tells Lucas as she insists they help a stranded boy, despite the fact that she's been seriously injured.
All the buzz about this film has been focused on Naomi Watts's performance as the matriarch of this family. (She's nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award.) Watts completely takes on the role and goes from the kind, wise, Conrad-reading mother we see at the beginning to the impossibly strong, selfless woman who spends the entire second half of the movie lying in a hospital bed, yet still able to convey the depth of her spirit in only her face. Welcome back, Naomi.
