In The Heart Of The Sea (2015)

In 1850, the writer Herman Melville (the ubiquitous Ben Whishaw) visits the sole living survivor (Brendan Gleeson) of the whaling ship Essex. The survivor's story will take form in Melville's next novel ..... MOBY DICK. Based on Nathaniel Philbrick's non-fiction book and directed by Ron Howard. But Howard isn't interested in making a movie sticking to the facts nor is he really interested in the actual incident that inspired Melville's book. What we get is a conventional sea adventure with a CGI ocean, CGI whales and trite dialogue. The Essex's captain, played here by Benjamin Walker, was at the focus of Philbrick's book but Howard switches it around and makes the ship's first mate, played by the photogenic Chris Hemsworth, the film's hero. In reality, Melville interviewed the ship's captain but Howard has Melville interviewing the ship's cabin boy (Tom Holland, THE IMPOSSIBLE grown up into Gleeson). But who goes to the movies for historical facts? None of this would matter if the film were any good but it's a forgettable film, already fading rapidly away as I'm typing! I did like Roque Banos' underscore. With Cillian Murphy, Michelle Fairley and Frank Dillane.