The Impossible (12A)

Averagely told account of one family`s experience of the horrific tragedy. Wait for the dvd.

Charlie in response to your query over my use of phraseology my comments are as follows. I found it difficult to love a family who a) could afford to stay at a luxury resort over Christmas and earned so much that the wife could afford not to work despite being a qualified doctor. Hardly an everyman story of the tsunami. b) Apart from the mother and son's relatively short but harrowing struggle we heard virtually nothing about the over 200,000 other people who died. The whole story struck me as a sanitised middle class experience and not a harrowing disaster that it was. c) much of the story was set at the hospital where she seemed to get good care compared to what many did in the aftermath of the tsunami. d) the father and two younger sons were barely mentioned because they were fortunate to be not swept away. Those in the luxury resort staying above ground level seemed to get away virtually unscathed and were barely affected by the disaster. This is a very different scenario to that faced by the thousands of Western backpackers caught up in the disaster. e) when they were repatriated there was a luxury jet which has seats for up to another 30 fellow insured people who could have got out to Singapore on that plane but they were on the flight alone. Surely only a situation that occurs for those who turn left when getting on a plane. As many caught in plane related disaster issues can attest the experiences for those who fly "cattle class" is much less pleasant when there are crises. My point is simple they had it very lucky compared to the many whose lives were totally decimated by the tsunami. I am sorry if you were upset by my opinion but i felt that this was an opportunity missed for a great film about the Boxing Day tsunami. Most great stories have a great film made about them. The tsunami was a great story sadly this is not its great film.

No sense of humour the lefty tree huggers... does this mean im grouned

"It is difficult to care about an obviously very affluent family in a human catastrophe." - what the hell is that supposed to mean?! Some of you really have some pathetic hangups about class systems. People were on the brink of death and all you care about is how much money was in their pockets. Grow up.

Alix:3: so your local cinema allows you access to its kitchen, does it? I wasn`t even aware my local Showcase had a kitchen!

Well said Adam. This tragedy happened right in my backyard and I can still remember the horror. In fact, at some points, I had to look away. The drama was surreal and the acting, especially the children, was superb. Not everything has to be a "blockbuster" to be effective.

i cried and cried.. the end where the rich family flew off in their jet without tinted windows so they could block out the distressing scenes was heartbreaking

ok but too much angusih

I find the negative reviews on here very distasteful and clearly from people who are just not happy in their lives. This is one of the most affecting pieces of film making in a very long time. Made even more emotional simply by the fact it is a true story. This is not a Hollywood disaster movie, this is real life. The 'scene' itself is treated with respect and not OTT glamourised post production. In fact I read recently that it took 1 year to film those scenes alone, as the director wanted to recreate them as sensitively and as accurately with real water as possible. We know, going in, that this is not a documentary on the statistics. It is an isolated story of one family, albeit Spanish, but reenacted with English speaking actors so that the majority of this world can watch and appreciate the terror, destruction and emotion this family (and many others) inevitable went through. So don't pick fault. It makes you look shallow and miserable. Just go home and hug your family and friends tight. Tell them you love them. And just be thankful that you are not one of the 250,000 people who couldn't.

Good handling of an emotive subject. Stars were excellent as was cinematography.Stop griping about it!.