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Created Feb 05, 2016 07:27PM PST • Edited Sep 02, 2017 12:17PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Real romance precedes real heroism in The Finest Hours. A retro historical drama and Disnefied true-story of the greatest rescue in Coast Guard history, its tone is as extremely earnest as its story is death-defying.

   The romance between Bernie & Miriam Webber defines almost the entire first reel, and a real romance it is: cute and sweet and genuine. Dates will love it, even if the rest of the movie rocks the boat with a perfect-storm disaster, notwithstanding a super happy ending.

   The rescue is a doozy, told in parallel parts, that of the benighted ship’s crew fighting to extend the time before their half-vessel sinks into the icy Atlantic, and that of the dauntless Coast Guard crew defying death to reach them. Casey Affleck leads the former and Chris Pine the latter, two great actors more than capable of carrying the movie.

   Movie fans who retain a taste for real-life drama and traditional values will find The Finest Hours a great movie, not just one about perhaps the greatest ocean rescue in history. It’s clearly the greatest movie rescue.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Chris Pine is an old-fashioned moviestar: traditionally handsome and decent, kind of a 21st century Gregory Peck, a leading man for a new generation. He plays Bernie Webber, Boatswain’s Mate First Class and the greatest enlistedman in US Coast Guard history.

   Casey Affleck equally carries the movie as Ray Sybert, the engine room boss who rallied his crew, figured out how to deal with profound setbacks and led his men back to shore. Ben’s brother Casey is surely the more soulful Affleck.

   • Holliday Grainger joins Chris Pine in retro moviestar attractiveness as Miriam Pentinen Webber, Bernie’s Miriam. The British Holiday sounds perfectly Down East and is pretty as picture doing it.

   Coasties

   • John Magaro is carving himself an admirable movie acting career, here as Seaman Ervin Maske, who volunteered for the mission. Magaro came to notice playing the lead in Not Fade Away and is also currently on-screen in The Big Short.
   • Ben Foster is rarely likable, here as Seaman Richard Livesey
   • John Ortiz is always likable, here as Seaman Wallace Quirey
   • Eric Bana as Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff
   • Josh Stewart as Tchuda Sutherland
   • Graham McTavish as Frank Fauteuil
   • Kyle Gallner as Engineman Third Class Andrew Fitzgerald
   • Michael Raymond-James as A.B. Seaman D.A. Brown

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Outstanding film, at once a period piece and an action-movie.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

19. Rudeness Salty 1.8

21. Reality

    Glib 1.6

22. Circumstantial Glib 2.0

23. Biological Glib 1.7

24. Physical Natural 1.0