An Impossibly Bad Movie

Naomi early on, before she starts to die. (She lives.)

Earlier this week I went to see The Impossible with a friend and she fainted after the first 20 minutes, forcing me to leave the theater and only imagine what happened after the initial tsunami swept away everything in its path. Intrigued, I returned last night with my husband, whose own curiosity was more than piqued by the aforementioned fainting spell. (Mitch is an incurable rubbernecker when passing car accidents on the road. In fact, if you're stuck in traffic because of one, he's likely at all but a full stop at the head of the line.) Besides, I read no less than six reviews written by reputable film critics, and not one of them even hinted at anything nauseating, disturbing, gross, horrid, despicable, haunting, life-changing, gratuitously gory or downright stupid, so naturally I was surprised when it turned out to be full of all that. In fact, the opening sequence depicting the complete destruction of the scale model of a luxurious Thai beach resort and the leading lady's leg was the most upbeat part of the whole movie.

I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that Naomi Watts never looked worse, and did a heck of a job playing someone at Death's Door for two-thirds of the movie. It was truly a roller-coaster ride, taking the audience through the gamut of emotions from slightly nauseous to projectile vomiting. In fact, a young girl actually did throw up towards the end, and she was in our theater, not on the screen. Thanks to the incredibly loud and sappy sound track, we hardly noticed.

In fairness to the throngs of people who worked on the movie, I must say that I woke up happier today for having seen it. After all, I'm not watching it now and have no plans to see it again, and that's a really good thing. Oh, by the way--Mitch loved it. (You think you know someone...)