Just over five years ago, 33 Chilean miners were faced with a life-or-death situation. Their story was harrowing as they laid trapped beneath the ground and the world stood by watching. It was a national story of survival.
I remember the story when it was news but did some more research regarding the true story of the miners after seeing "The 33". Even reading news articles over the weekend about the mining incident, I was riveted by the courage and tale of survival. It's unfortunate to report that "The 33" has failed to make a compelling movie out of such a compelling story.
Director Patricia Riggen has the difficult task of taking a well-known, highly publicized story and trying to make an engaging mainstream film out of it. I commend her for taking on the challenge and making it all look wonderful, technically speaking. But, there is no urgency to the two-hour film, which fails to translate the highly-emotional story to the screen.
The screenplay by Mikko Alanne, Craig Borten and Michael Thomas fails to capture the miners struggle as deeply as it could, rarely taking the "The 33" past the trappings of a Movie of the Week. We get moments of the psychological effects of being trapped underground for 69 days. The men face starvation and getting under each other's skin but the film doesn't explore these effects in great depth.
Antonio Banderas leads the pack as Mario, along with Lou Diamond Phillips as part of the team. The risk of having a movie about 33 men is that we don't get a lot of time to spend with any one of them. As the headliner, Banderas gets speechifying moments about the miners' struggle but everyone else is often regulated to the background. In a bit of odd casting, the wonderful French actress Juliette Binoche plays Maria, Mario's sister. I love Binoche in just about anything she does (this year's "Clouds of Sils Maria" is worth finding) but she seems woefully out of place here.
It is possible to make an exciting film out of a story where you know the outcome. Kathryn Bigelow managed to make "Zero Dark Thirty" an electrifying account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. We knew how that story ended but the raid on bin Laden's compound was edge-of-your-seat filmmaking. There's rarely a palpable sense of tension in "The 33."
The story of the Chilean miners is an important one to tell. They deserve a film that can better tell their courageous story.
| Movie title | The 33 |
|---|---|
| Release year | 2015 |
| MPAA Rating | PG |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | An important story told in a very underwhelming way. |
