Thirteen Lives

This will likely be one of my shorter reviews because A) it's been a busy movie weekend and B) it's only Monday and my week is already away and running. "A" could be solved if all these distributors/streamers would...I don't know...be smarter to avoid conflicts? 

On to the film...

Thirteen Lives is a dramatic re-telling of the jaw dropping real life rescue of 12 children and their coach from a flooded Thai cave. Last year's critically acclaimed The Rescue is a documentary about the same event that I desperately need to see and, much to its credit, Thirteen Lives has inspired me to aim to do that soon. Hopefully during a weekend that doesn't have 3 large-scale releases (can you tell it annoys me?).

Thirteen Lives comes from director Ron Howard who is...not my favorite. His Rath's Review Score average is ~7 (good) but a frustrating 7 given the filmography. He's a director often given incredible material who does good, sometimes nearing on great, but often un-special things with the power he's given. 

Thirteen Lives, for as much as I enjoyed it (Hey! At least it was a high-quality 3-movie weekend), falls into the frustrating category because of Howard. There's some things to really, really love. For starters, the story is distant enough in the past that many have likely forgotten about it, upping the stakes and suspense. Even if you remember it, or recently watched The Rescue, the process and outcome of this shocking true story is inspiring and thrilling. Where Howard's direction is perfectly on-point is within the technical diving sequences. They're bone-chillingly claustrophobic, with most of the audio cut out except for what the diver would hear: their breathing, bubbles from their oxygen, scraping against the tight cave walls, and their oxygen tanks bouncing off hard rock. Even with 20+ scenes, drenched in darkness, these are still wildly effective and barely lose their effectiveness. If there's one thing Thirteen Lives isn't missing, it's tension. 

"I'm sure of it. There was no Gimli, son of Gloin, down there!"

However, I felt like it was missing a lot of other things. Supported by a stellar cast - Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton - the whole thing feels stripped down anytime it's not in the water. I imagine this creative decision was made to emphasize the realism and that these were real people doing this ridiculous thing...but the film leans too far in this direction. Scenes of people talking are void of much camera work or music to create tension and there's an even focus on nearly every character (aka a lot of them) so we never really connect with any of them. 

I'll stop there since I said this would be a shorter review. Thirteen Lives is a good film, but much like Howard's filmography, it doesn't feel like something that will stick with me for months to come and - even worse - it feels like something that should have been a near-classic given the subject matter. Instead, it's biggest win is some highly successful diving scenes and pointing me toward The Rescue (which sounds more thrilling). 

CONS

• Feels too stripped down in non-diving scenes. Very little camera work and almost no original score are sorely missed, especially for 2.5 hours
• Probably could have used a trim, but that's only obvious in hindsight. Looking back, there's a handful of events that feel big at the time, but could probably be cut

PROS

• Underwater dive sequences are incredible. They're tense and uncomfortable in the best of ways
• Wow, this story is an insane building block to start a film with!
• Great cast that effectively follows Howard's notes to make these men feel like the "everyman" doing incredible things
• I very much appreciated the cave map overlays throughout, even if they feel a bit inconsistent

Rath's Review Score | 7/10