The impossible (M)(113 min)

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. Starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor.

Set during and in the days immediately following the 2004 Boxing day tsunami, The Impossible is a stunning achievement. The film follows a young European couple, and their three sons. When the waves hit, the mother and her eldest son are separated from the father and the two younger sons.

As played by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, and a truly extraordinary breakout performance from the young Tom Holland, the family go through every shade of fear, grief, and pain imaginable, never knowing if the others are alive.

Director Juan Antonio Bayona absolutely blew me away a few years with his debut El Orfanato (The Orphanage). There, he humanised and magnified a great terror, by focusing his story on the relationship between a mother and her son. In The Impossible, Bayona works the same magic.

This is a true story, beautifully well told. If you can get through it without a few tears, you've a harder heart than mine.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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