Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

In the Heart of the Sea
2015
***
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson, Michelle Fairley, Gary Beadle, Frank Dillane

In search of inspiration for his novel Moby-Dick, Herman Melville interviews the last remaining survivor of Essex, a whaling ship which was sunk by a sperm whale in the southern Pacific Ocean 30 years earlier. Ron Howard's historical drama is heavy on CGI, but it offers some gripping and believable depiction of life at sea. While the second half is the more harrowing part of the story, it does drag a bit. Charles Leavitt's screenplay is based on Nathaniel Philbrick's non-fiction book, although this Essex crew is curiously full of stock characters.