Thirteen Lives – Review
147 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by William Nicholson and Don MacPherson
Directed by Ron Howard

**NOTE: this post may be updated with our discussion if Ryan gets to watch the film, but until then, you can listen to Mark’s thoughts, read some more below, and read Ryan’s review HERE, as well. Stay tuned.**

Synopsis:@RealImagine

A rescue mission is assembled in Thailand where a group of young boys and their soccer coach are trapped in a system of underground caves that are flooding.

Ron Howard is one of those directors who is incredibly talented, yet who is often overlooked in discussions of “the greats,” despite the fact he has two Academy Awards (Best Director and Picture for A Beautiful Mind) and countless other nominations and fantastic pieces of work.

This is a terrible tragedy.

Let’s hope Thirteen Lives reminds people of what he can do behind a camera.

This is based on the true story of the Thai soccer team and their coach who become trapped in a cave when monsoon rains come early, and it floods. For nine days, no one could even determine whether or not the boys were still alive, much less if they could be rescued.

A team of British cave rescue divers (all volunteers and amateurs) comes to Thailand and, using their very specific skills, experience, and training, finally maneuver far enough through the flooded, pitch-black, tight caverns and surface two-and-a-half miles inside the mountain to (shockingly) discover the boys alive.

What follows is a testament to Howard’s filmmaking capabilities. Once the diving begins, it feels as if most of the movie is shot underwater. The fact that Howard manages to convey what must have been the abject terror of the absolute darkness, the cold, the claustrophobia, the constant fear of running out of oxygen, while still almost (visually) demanding the film be seen on the biggest screen possible (at least once) is astounding.

Much as Howard did in Apollo 13, there is a sense of intimacy independent of the close quarters in which the film is shot. Howard excels at bringing an immediacy of the characters to the screen, regardless of the expansiveness of the situation in which they find themselves.

I somewhat roughly compared the feel here of what he accomplished in Rush, making the huge world of Formula-1 racing fit and be most important in the confined space of the two racing helmets of Nikki Lauda and James Hunt.

Thirteen Lives brings that same immediacy through the quality performances of Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell as the lead British divers. Mortensen plays the pragmatic, almost pessimistic force who is Rick Stanton, while Farrell turns in one of his best performances to date as John Volanthen, more realist than optimist, but a man who refuses to allow the obvious to blunt his efforts at bringing the boys out alive.

“Where there’s life, there’s hope,” if you will, even if it seems the world is intent on quashing that hope at every turn.

What plays across out Thirteen Lives‘ runtime is a testament to that idea, and Ron Howard presents it to us brilliantly, as always.

Thirteen Lives is available in limited release TODAY in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, and will open on Amazon Prime Video on August 5.

Thirteen Lives stars Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Josh Helman, Paul Gleeson, Vithay Pansringarm, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Natvara Hongsuwan, and Pattrakorn Tungsupakul.

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