Ah, vacation -- that idyllic break from the realities of life! Except when we're reminded of the shocking indifference of nature.
This HBO/BBC two-part miniseries could be the poster child for poet Robert Burns's famous "best-laid plans of mice and men" idea. It is a visually dazzling and gut-wrenching imagining of the week following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, from the perspective of foreign tourists and local residents in and around a resort destroyed on the coast of Thailand.
The story hinges on the efforts of a family man, Ian (Chiwetel Ejiofor), to locate his six-year-old daughter, after the tsunami rises out of nowhere and tears them apart -- leaving Martha (Jazmin Maraso) clinging desperately to a tree trunk and Ian knocked out by torpedo-strength debris. Their wife and mom has her own perspective on the tidal wave's horrors, surfacing as she does from a scuba-dive trip to encounter corpses floating on the water. Susan (Sophie Okonedo) starts by blaming Ian for losing their only child -- "I should never have left Martha with you...You lost her, you find her!" -- but, having been out on a pleasure trip when disaster struck,she finally acknowledges that no one is at fault.
Other poignant stories unfold. There is another Western family that, through happenstance -- the dad and brother choose to sleep in the day after Christmas, rather than get up early for the scuba trip -- gets ripped asunder in a different way. Wife Kim (played rather blandly by Tina McKee) becomes a widow overnight, and, not having bought travel insurance, finds herself frittering precious time trying to fly her unconscious teenage son back to England -- "He will die if he's not evacuated tonight!" We also meet a young local man, Than (Samrit Machielsen), who loses his whole family in the wave but risks health and freedom to assist injured villagers or create funeral pyres for the less fortunate. "We burn them to free the soul."
The visual effects in this film are awe-inspiring yet seem realistic, beginning with Susan rises to the surface of the eerily still ocean. On shore, a first few fish flap oddly on the sand, prompting questions from the not-understanding. "What's wrong with the sea?" asks someone who has noticed that the strand has multiplied in size.
This film tries to grapple with the more macro issues following a natural disaster, like language and cultural barriers that make a near-impossible salvage job even harder. We witness the haplessness of a resort unable to account for more than 700 guests, and the chaos of provincial hospitals ill-equipped to handle the lost, maimed, and dead. A British ambassador (played a little flatly by Huge Bonneville), perhaps accustomed to an easy posting in a plum location, writhes uncomfortably throughout the film, showing himself ill-equipped to handle the emotional intricacies of a vast human tragedy.
We also witness the efforts of the press amidst a clashing of values; Tim Roth excels as a journalist who is appalled to discover the authorities are cremating bodies before identifying them, presumably in a desperate gambit to prevent the spread of infection. ("Go away -- respect!" urges the monk at a makeshift morgue.) Toni Collette also does well as a Thai-speaking, expat educator who improvises to relieve the misery that sprawls around her.
Along the way, the relentless and haunted Ian seeks counsel wherever he can. "She's only 6, but she's got a real strong grip," he tells the Roth character of Martha and the tree. The reporter surmises that Martha is still alive; however, a Dutch pathologist dourly challenges that possibility.
This movie ends far from happily. As in real life, questions remain. As land developers move ahead with plans to rebuild hotels, Ian and Susan create a candle-lit shrine on the beach for Martha, and we wonder whether they will ever leave Thailand and their daughter behind. Whatever their decision, we learn there are plans now for a tsunami-alert system. ("Next time, a 30-minute warning will make all the difference," says a scientist whose earlier clarion call had been ignored.)
CODA: We learn in this film's after-titles that the tsunami killed 227,023 people in 12 countries. More than 50,000 people remain missing.
This HBO/BBC two-part miniseries could be the poster child for poet Robert Burns's famous "best-laid plans of mice and men" idea. It is a visually dazzling and gut-wrenching imagining of the week following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, from the perspective of foreign tourists and local residents in and around a resort destroyed on the coast of Thailand.
The story hinges on the efforts of a family man, Ian (Chiwetel Ejiofor), to locate his six-year-old daughter, after the tsunami rises out of nowhere and tears them apart -- leaving Martha (Jazmin Maraso) clinging desperately to a tree trunk and Ian knocked out by torpedo-strength debris. Their wife and mom has her own perspective on the tidal wave's horrors, surfacing as she does from a scuba-dive trip to encounter corpses floating on the water. Susan (Sophie Okonedo) starts by blaming Ian for losing their only child -- "I should never have left Martha with you...You lost her, you find her!" -- but, having been out on a pleasure trip when disaster struck,she finally acknowledges that no one is at fault.
Other poignant stories unfold. There is another Western family that, through happenstance -- the dad and brother choose to sleep in the day after Christmas, rather than get up early for the scuba trip -- gets ripped asunder in a different way. Wife Kim (played rather blandly by Tina McKee) becomes a widow overnight, and, not having bought travel insurance, finds herself frittering precious time trying to fly her unconscious teenage son back to England -- "He will die if he's not evacuated tonight!" We also meet a young local man, Than (Samrit Machielsen), who loses his whole family in the wave but risks health and freedom to assist injured villagers or create funeral pyres for the less fortunate. "We burn them to free the soul."
The visual effects in this film are awe-inspiring yet seem realistic, beginning with Susan rises to the surface of the eerily still ocean. On shore, a first few fish flap oddly on the sand, prompting questions from the not-understanding. "What's wrong with the sea?" asks someone who has noticed that the strand has multiplied in size.
This film tries to grapple with the more macro issues following a natural disaster, like language and cultural barriers that make a near-impossible salvage job even harder. We witness the haplessness of a resort unable to account for more than 700 guests, and the chaos of provincial hospitals ill-equipped to handle the lost, maimed, and dead. A British ambassador (played a little flatly by Huge Bonneville), perhaps accustomed to an easy posting in a plum location, writhes uncomfortably throughout the film, showing himself ill-equipped to handle the emotional intricacies of a vast human tragedy.
We also witness the efforts of the press amidst a clashing of values; Tim Roth excels as a journalist who is appalled to discover the authorities are cremating bodies before identifying them, presumably in a desperate gambit to prevent the spread of infection. ("Go away -- respect!" urges the monk at a makeshift morgue.) Toni Collette also does well as a Thai-speaking, expat educator who improvises to relieve the misery that sprawls around her.
Along the way, the relentless and haunted Ian seeks counsel wherever he can. "She's only 6, but she's got a real strong grip," he tells the Roth character of Martha and the tree. The reporter surmises that Martha is still alive; however, a Dutch pathologist dourly challenges that possibility.
This movie ends far from happily. As in real life, questions remain. As land developers move ahead with plans to rebuild hotels, Ian and Susan create a candle-lit shrine on the beach for Martha, and we wonder whether they will ever leave Thailand and their daughter behind. Whatever their decision, we learn there are plans now for a tsunami-alert system. ("Next time, a 30-minute warning will make all the difference," says a scientist whose earlier clarion call had been ignored.)
CODA: We learn in this film's after-titles that the tsunami killed 227,023 people in 12 countries. More than 50,000 people remain missing.