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THE PERFECT STORM Send This Review to a Friend
When will Hollywood learn to trust a good story and not bury it under an oppressive, loud, meaningless score that could be interchanged with the music of any number of films? At moments when the music is turned off and "The Perfect Storm," based on Sebastian Junger's book, relies upon the sounds of the wind, sea and shipboard noise, the film based on a true story takes on an edgy reality that no effort to make the saga look important can match. Nature is a star player in this drama, and man fighting the elements is raw enough not to require phony movie embellishment.
The incessant thundering assault on the eardrums diverts us from the guts of this story. George Clooney provides his vaunted appeal as fisherman Captain Billy Tyne, who, along with his men sailing from Gloucester, Mass., is driven to take chances to score a sizable catch. The need for money requires it. So does ego. Tyne is accused of losing his touch by the owner of the Andrea Gail when he brings in a comparatively meager load of fish. He is impelled to go out and try again immediately.
Director Wolfgang Petersen and screenwriter Bill Wittliff, take time at the start to give us a glimpse of life in the New England port, its seafaring inhabitants and the families who hope their loved ones will not fall prey to accidents that in the history of the town have left an honor roll of dead. Attention is concentrated on Bobby, played with considerable strength and appeal by Mark Wahlberg, and Christina, portrayed by the always-fascinating Diane Lane with a mix of luminosity and fierce earthiness. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is good in her role as Linda, a savvy ship captain who could be a love interest for Tyne if he could be diverted long enough from his obsession with fishing.
Such is the set up for the ultimate story, Tyne's sailing fatefully into the midst of incredible colliding hurricanes, clinically called "the perfect storm" by a weatherman who marvels at the rarity. The director uses an onslaught of terrific effects to make the storm utterly realistic as it batters everything in sight. There is no way Tyne can get through this no matter how much macho courage is mustered by him and his crew.
Much of the movie is gripping because of the visual creativity and the force of nature depicted so effectively. Man against the storm. The theme is powerful. But Petersen shows no confidence in it. James Horner's music, memorable only for its intrusiveness, inundates everything. I kept thinking how much better the film would be if the score were eliminated entirely and we were left with seaworthy realism. But it is obvious that Hollywood hands were thinking "blockbuster" and tradition dictates that loudness equals importance. It's part of the formula. A Warner Bros. release.
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