The Perfect Storm
Spoilers herein.
As with United 93, though I guess I can be more easily forgiven here, I didn’t know the outcome of this story – I didn’t know the story at all, in fact – so the ending of the movie kinda hit me surprisingly hard, especially considering the cast alone, let alone the budget etc, make it a “mainstream” picture. James Horner’s cookie-cutter (albeit, gotta admit, still pretty gorgeous) score and the ever-so-slightly similar storyline (well, man vs. nature :P) had me comparing it in my mind to Apollo 13 and I really wanted the guys to come home – most of all I wanted to see a cute reunion between Irene and Bugsy who had barely begun fallen in love before the boat left (“I wish it was night so I could say, ‘goodnight Irene,’”). As it is, this is a well put together drama with some flawless visual effects and a great cast, particularly the women – Diane Lane, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Cherry Jones, Rusty Schwimmer and Karen Allen, all of whom are given surprisingly strong, well-written roles in a movie you’d expect to be all about the guys. It makes the ending all the more powerful that we get to know the people who survived the storm too.