The 33

 

The 33

• Director: Patricia Riggen
• Based on a book by Hector Tobar
• Cast: Antonia Banderas, Juliette Binoche, Rodrigo Santoro, Gabriel Byrne, Lou Diamond Phillips
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Antonio Banderas – Once upon a Time in Mexico, Frida, Evita, Philadelphia, The House of Spirits
• Juliette Binoche – High Life, Dan in Real Life, Breaking and Entering, Paris je t’aime, Caché, Chocolat, The English Patient, Rouge, Blanc, Bleu, Wuthering Heights, Les amants du Pont-neuf
• Rodrigo Santoro – Love Actually, The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone
• Lou Diamond Phillips – SGU Stargate Universe, La Bamba
• Gabriel Byrne – Hereditary, Quirke, Emotional Arithmetic, Jindabyne, Wah-Wah, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Dead Man, The Usual Suspects, Little Women, Prince of Jutland, Miller’s Crossing, Gothic, Excalibur
• Why? I followed the news while it was happening. I read the book.
• Seen: 2 January 2021

             Do you remember the thirty-three Chilean miners buried alive in a gold mine in 2010? This is the Hollywood version of their story.

       Thirty-three miners. One is two weeks from retirement. One is entering the mine for the first time. One is about to become a father. One is scheduled for a day off but asks to work because he’s short of money. One warns the boss that the mountain is about to collapse but is told to get to work.

       It collapses.

       We follow the trapped men, their families, the government officials who at first don’t want to take action because it’s a privately-owned mine, the rescuers, the journalists. We see the doubts and fears, the hopelessness, the conflict.

       It does have its Hollywood moments but it’s a decent film. An impossible reality to convey, it was in fact conveyed rather well.

 3½ * of 5