I don’t take into account myself a stickler with regards to defining the parameters of style, however I additionally assume that every one comes pre-packaged with expectations if not outright guarantees. If a film calls itself a romance, I believe it’s honest to anticipate that the story will function two or extra characters falling in love. If a film calls itself horror, I sit down within the theater bracing myself for scares. And if a film calls itself a thriller, I assume it can make each try to lift my blood strain and hold my ass balancing on the sting of my chair.
Final Breath
Launch Date: February 28, 2025
Directed By: Alex Parkinson
Written By: Mitchell LaFortune and Alex Parkinson & David Brooks
Starring: Finn Cole, Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Cliff Curtis, Mark Bonnar, Josef Altin, and MyAnna Buring
Score: PG-13 for temporary sturdy language
Runtime: 93 minutes
So permit this to be my formal grievance about director Alex Parkinson’s Final Breath and its style classification. The brand new movie definitely has markings of a thriller – it’s primarily based on a real story of survival and has life-or-death stakes play out tons of of ft beneath the ocean – however there are precisely zero thrills to supply. It adapts the main points of a harrowing occasion and gives audiences with a glance into the harmful world of being a saturation diver, nevertheless it’s additionally shockingly boring in doing so and fails to translate the horrible stress of the fact on the display.
Parkinson beforehand directed the documentary of the identical identify from 2019, and whereas I admit that I’ve not seen that function, I’m left imagining that the function adaptation should hone extraordinarily near the info, because it’s the one logical excuse for why the brand new movie is as boring as it’s. It options some extraordinarily proficient actors in key roles, however their personalities by no means evolve past tropes, and the movie is wholly missing in compelling narrative developments after the inciting incident. Final Breath fortunately doesn’t overplay its hand, its closing lower being a brisk 93 minutes, nevertheless it’s not an entertaining strategy to spend an hour-and-a-half.
Finn Cole performs Chris Lemons, a younger man employed in one of many world’s most harmful jobs. He’s a saturation diver, which suggests that he’s educated to carry out long run deep-sea operations, and he’s tapped for his first mission to do upkeep on an oil pipeline within the North Sea. He’s teamed with Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson), a veteran and paternal determine who’s being pressured into retirement following one final job, and David Yuasa (Simu Liu), a stoic who retains his colleagues at a distance. After days of getting ready their our bodies for the literal strain of their job, they set off to the restore web site.
Whereas Duncan stays in a diving bell secured to a assist vessel on the floor, Chris and David plunge to the ocean ground. The whole lot goes fallacious when the assist vessel’s dynamic positioning system fails throughout a storm, and because the ship begins to float, it leads to Chris’ umbilical tether being severed. David is ready to make it again to the diving bell, however his colleague is left on the oil pipeline with an especially restricted air provide. Each minute counts to find Chris and getting him to security, which sounds thrilling… nevertheless it’s actually not.
Actuality is handled as a power by Final Breath, nevertheless it’s very a lot a weak point.
When filmmakers focus on diversions from actuality within the making of flicks “primarily based on a real story,” the final excuse is that they aren’t making a documentary; there must be a pure understanding from the viewers within the making of any narrative function that some liberties are taken. It’s type of a cop out, however I very a lot want that there was extra of that power in Final Breath, as this can be a case of the main points of the true story in the end failing to be cinematic.
I went into my screening not figuring out something about the actual occasions that the movie relies on, however being the veteran moviegoer that I’m, I used to be fairly certain that I wasn’t going to be watching a narrative a couple of man who, regardless of the most effective efforts of his colleagues, tragically died on the ground of the ocean on account of a technical failure. This in thoughts, my hopes for leisure as a substitute rested on being shocked by the creative and compelling maneuvers by the supporting characters that will outcome within the protagonist being saved. This expectation was by no means glad. Essentially the most “fascinating” factor that occurs within the rescue mission is a crew member of the assist vessel (Josef Altin) going right into a server room and rewiring some cables in order that the dynamic positioning system will take seconds to reboot as a substitute of an hour. It’s a snore.
Why solid Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu for those who’re not going to allow them to do something?
One would assume that the casting of charismatic stars like Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu could be utilized as a treatment for this narrative difficulty, as any battle could be compelling for those who deeply care concerning the characters dwelling by way of it – however that is simply one other considered one of Final Breath’s shortcomings. In describing Duncan and David above, I wasn’t being purposefully temporary or tactful in saving surprises for the large display; there merely isn’t the rest extra to their offered personalities. One is a mix of affable and wistful as he mentors Chris and says goodbye to a career he loves, and the opposite is emotionally chilly, however reveals ardour within the effort to avoid wasting his colleague. Harrelson and Liu (to not point out Cliff Curtis, who performs the personality-less captain for the assist vessel) are able to way more, however there’s nothing for them to do with the fabric.
Final Breath options some fascinating cinematography no less than.
In collaboration with director of pictures Nick Remy Matthews, Alex Parkinson makes use of various cinematography that provides layers of realism, with mounted cameras contained in the atmosphere-adjusted pods and video from diving fits, and there are some stellar-looking sequences. The most effective of the runtime is following Chris after he has been untethered and is making his approach again to the oil pipeline restore web site – his solely supply of sunshine being a flare that illuminates the water with a nightmarish purple shade. It’s stunning… but additionally far too temporary.
I’ve nothing however sympathy for the trauma endured by the actual folks depicted on this story and respect for the rescue efforts, however as harrowing because the true occasions should have been, that stress is solely not correctly translated as a story function in Final Breath. Not all tales of rescue and defying unimaginable odds are cinematic unto themselves, and this movie exists as proof.