Dir: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring
George Clooney
Mark Whalberg
John C. Reilly
William Fitchner
2000
PG-13, 129 m
RATING: 7 out of 10
George Clooney stars as Billy Tynes, Captan of the Andrea Gail. He's a fisherman who has been run into a dry spell, so he decides to trek into further into the ocean, hoping to find better catch and takes along fellow crewmen Mark Whalberg, John C. Reilly, William Fitchner, and John Hawker. At the same time, there are three gigantic storms converging along their route, and they, of course, team up to form the Perfect Storm, an unrelenting, brutal force of overwhelming proportions.
The Perfect Storm lives up to its title, containing some of the most fluod, spectacular storm effects ever put on celluloid. It's very difficult to tell when we're looking at CGI and when we're looking at actual storm footage. Recently, however, Hollywood has attempted to compensate for the holes and overall lack of substance in their scripts with an overload of special effects. This film at least attempts to make the audience care about its characters, showing each of the crewmates' friends and lover bidding them farewell during the film's first however before pluing them into the perilous yet beautifully created depths of the hellish stormfront.
The talented cast carries the story well. Clooney is a completely underrated actor and his muted performance here may be overshadow by Whalberg, but Clooney's character comes off as the stronger of the two in retrospect: Whalberg may love his girlfriend, but Clooney has a much deeper passion for the sea. Reilly and Fitchner do their best with their cliched material as two feuiding hotheads.
Thankfully, The Perfect Storm doesn't forget what makes films truly emotional and emorable: solid characters and good storytelling. While it may not be a complex drama, it's sympathetic characters, brisk pacing, along with some breath-taking visuals make it a top-notch, adrenalin-pumping action film.
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