181.
The Mercy
5.5/10
Once seeing the trailer for this, it looked like a film that I wouldn't have gone out of my way to see without my limitless account. The one thing that it had going for it was that it was based on a true story. It is quite intriguing, as far as a story goes, because an amateur sailor named Donald Crowhurst was attempting to circumnavigate the globe, as part of a competition. Due to it being solo, it would be interesting to see what the writers on this movie believed that this guy went through when alone and how these actions would be portrayed by Colin Firth. His wife is played by Rachel Weisz and along with a few other famous faces, let's find out if this is a movie that can make it around the world, or simply sink at the first attempt.
The film is pretty simply with its storyline, because it can simply go along the lines of what happened. It begins with a dream, Donald building his own boat and trying to find the finances from companies, in order to pay for the whole thing. Donald is a little inventor, not being able to sell his items and still wanting the need to be famous in some way. Building this boat and sailing was going to be his one-way ticket to stardom. He invested his house and business into the boat and was willing to leave his wife and children behind in his quest. Time quickly caught up this him and he had to set sail with an unfinished boat and hope that he was still in with a chance. Knowing that others had left before him, he was always going to be up shits creek. We can see by the look on his face, that he was a nervous as anyone can be. We travel a few days with him, with a few things falling apart on the boat, but so far, nothing major. Then it starts to get slightly worse and he knows that he's in trouble. When he radios home, to speak to his family, he does the same with the officiators and investors in his voyage and the competition. His main idea is to lie. Lie in how far he has gotten, how fast he is travelling and give everyone hope.
You can see this guy slowly deteriorate and slip into a persona that is worrying for anyone watching. Firth plays this role really well, for he comes across as a calm but passionate man and at the same time, he becomes really unnerving with his talking and answering himself under his own breath. Now shit, I may do that at times, but this guy's eyes, you could see he wasn't all there. He is filling in the diaries and lying on them too. Over the radio, he hears how other competitors are pulling up or pulling out of the competition, leaving only him and another. With his lies, he somehow gets everyone to believe that he is going below Africa and heading into the dangerous parts of the water, in which he will lose radio contact for a while. This gives him time to plan his next lie, one that means he won't even be going around Africa, he will turn around and head towards South America and work his way back up. After a bad storm, his ship is falling to bits. He ends up on a coast in Argentina and finds some help, after proving who he is, in patching his ship back up and sending him back on his way. Back home, everyone is waiting eagerly to hear whether he indeed, made it past the hardest waters. All he needs to do now is make it home, as the papers, news shows and everyone in his home village are now labelling him a hero. Instead, his ship is completely malfunctioning and his is losing his radio activity, as well as his mind.
The movie draws to a close as the people back home hear nothing more, they are subjecting themselves to the worst, knowing they should never have pushed him and put so much pressure on him to make them money. His family are still holding out hope, with banners and balloons, always looking for his return. Back on the boat, we witness the final demise of Donald. He grabs a few diaries in which he lied, the clock off the wall and jumps overboard. Being overcome with insane thoughts, he knew nothing more than to kill himself. Once the authorities find his boat, they come to the conclusion that he had fallen over board, probably knowing that this was a better conclusion for his family and the press.
For a watch and a bit of escapism, this wasn't too bad, but did come with its flaws. Firth done a cracking job of playing a man, 20 years younger than his actual age, who become lonely, insane and fell into a pit of despair. When it comes to Weisz, this wasn't such a good job. I'm not sure if this is done to her, because we have seen her do well elsewhere, but this character seemed a little bit 'cardboard', for a woman who was married to a failing business man. There's no real need to speak about the other, more general roles, because there was little room for error there. The sound and lack of it at times, added to the suspense of this man spiralling downwards but because the story would switch back onto land and then back to the boat after a while, it was hard to get to grips how long this man was alone. One major fact that you needed to look into was the fact that no one really knew what happened towards the end. Did this man take his own life because he couldn't live with the fact that he had lied and would have to answer questions about it all? We will never really know. Did this film do the story justice? I honestly cannot judge on that fact. This may be a story that you would have to read rather than see. When it comes to the movie, it was ok, but only in certain moments.
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