Based
on real events that happened back in 1991, and chronicled in
Sebastian Junger's bestseller, this is a mostly speculative account
of what happened on board a fishing vessel in the North Atlantic
which past through one of the nastiest storms ever. It's a struggle
for survival as the crew quickly find themselves slowly losing
control of every aspect of the ship.
THE PERFECT
STORM is what happens when something that should have been made for
TV gets big budget Hollywood treatment. The special effects are
what's most impressive about the film, which is astonishing since
most people watching won't realize almost all of the storm is
computer generated. Wolfgang Petersen, director of the taut thriller
AIR FORCE ONE and the classic submarine film DAS BOOT, does the best
he can with the material given to him, and a competent cast of
character actors breathe life into simplistic, underwritten roles. A
more realistic portrayal of these events would have made for a much
more compelling film, but too much romanticism and whoop-de-do before
what's just a mere fishing expedition leads to a schmaltzy and
ineffectual ending. Credit Petersen and the cast for making this
watchable, but it really isn't a film that needed to be made.
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