Dinesh Kamath's column on Hollywood movie 'The Impossible ' that was published in Newsband

The Impossible (Spanish: Lo imposible) is a 2012 English-language Spanish disaster drama film directed by Juan Antonio Bayona from a screenplay written by Sergio G. Sánchez, starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. It tells the true story of a Spanish (though portrayed as English) family's experience of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The Impossible had its world premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, where it received critical acclaim. The film was released on October 11, 2012 in Spain and in North America on December 21, 2012 by Summit Entertainment.

The movie has an interesting plot. The film tells the true story of a Spanish family, played by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, and their three children. It starts as the family begins their Christmas vacation in Thailand, with the intention of spending a few days at a tropical paradise resort. However, their idyllic vacation is interrupted on the morning of December 26, 2004, when a devastating tsunami destroys the coastal zone. The family is separated in surviving the disaster, and they begin a desperate search to reunite.

The film has Naomi Watts as Maria, Ewan McGregor as Henry, Tom Holland as Lucas, Samuel Joslin as Thomas, Oaklee Pendergast as Simon, Geraldine Chaplin as Old Woman, Marta Etura and Simon Blyberg as Ferdinand.

The film is a co-production between the Spanish companies Apaches Entertainment and Telecinco Cinema. The crew consists of the same key people who made The Orphanage, including director, writer, production manager, cinematographer, composer, and editor.

Early reviews for the film were positive, with much praise going to the performances of Watts, McGregor and newcomer Tom Holland. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 81% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. It currently has an 83% rating with the audience. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film currently holds an average score of 75, based on 29 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a perfect four star rating, praising the performances of Watts and McGregor, as well as the direction by Bayona. He would go on to call it "one of the best films of the year".

Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a perfectly positive review, praising the performances of the two leading stars, stating that "Watts packs a huge charge of emotion as the battered, ever-weakening Maria whose tears of pain and fear never appear fake or idealized. McGregor, cut and streaked with excessive blood he seems too distraught to wash away, keeps the tension razor-sharp as he pursues his family in a vast, shattered landscape." About the film itself, she added: "The Impossible is one of the most emotionally realistic disaster movies in recent memory -- and certainly one of the most frightening in its epic re-creation of the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami."

Justin Chang of Variety magazine also gave the film a perfectly positive review, praising Bayona's directing and Sánchez's writing: "Collaborating again after their impressive 2007 debut feature, The Orphanage, Bayona and Sanchez get many things right here, starting with their decision to eschew a more panoramic view of the disaster to follow one family's journey from start to finish." About the performances of the main cast members, he added: "Watts has few equals at conveying physical and emotional extremis, something she again demonstrates in a mostly bedridden role, and McGregor, in one of his better recent performances, manages to turn a simple phone call home into a small aria of heartbreak. Holland, in his live-action bigscreen debut, is wonderful as a kind, somewhat short-tempered kid who still has plenty to learn, setting the tone for similarly heartrending turns by young Joslin and Pendergast."

Damon Wise of The Guardian gave the film four stars out of five. He also praised the performances, stating that "as Maria, Watts is both brave and vulnerable, and her scenes with the young Lucas (the excellent Tom Holland) are among the film's best, with adult and child now unexpected equals, the mother humbled, the son rising to the challenge. McGregor, meanwhile, gives one of his best performances as the sad and desperate Henry, trying to play the hero, the provider, while knowing his cause is almost certainly lost." About the film, he added: "Part of the appeal of this affecting and powerful drama is that it puts the viewer right in the moment at every stage, using authentic locations and tsunami survivors to hammer home the reality of this tragedy." Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave the film a "B-" grade, and stated that the film "suffers from the greater problem of emphasizing a feel-good plot within the context of mass destruction."

The London Daily Mail reported that British survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami felt "horrified" and "ambushed" and were reduced to tears by the film's trailer, which was screened prior to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in theaters. Tsunami Support UK, a support group for survivors of the tsunami, lobbied to have the trailer screened with a warning notice beforehand. A spokesman for the Odeon cinema chain responded by saying that it had no control over the content of the BBFC-approved trailer, saying, "We can only apologise for any offence caused on this occasion."

Thus The Impossible is a great movie. Do watch it when it gets released on 4 January 2013.