Checked out an early showing of In the Heart of the Sea, Ron Howard’s new whalin’ movie. Based on the real life story (more-or-less, I suspect) that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and 150 years of tormenting high school students with it. It stars a lot of British and Australian actors trying their hardest to say Pahk the Cah in Havahd Yahd (bad accent theater, I’m looking at you Chris Hemsworth).

But, despite the shaky accents and some short-hand melodrama (Salt-of-the-Earth First Mate Good, Rich Boy Captain Bad), this is a pretty great movie with a propulsive musical score. There are beautiful and thrilling scenes of men in rowboats chasing down whales that really drive home how dangerous the job was. It looks amazing and the camera work and the sense of speed is infectious. Yes, they are killing whales for oil but if you can set aside our 21st century opinion of that, you’ll enjoy it. And, hell, if you can’t, then at least you get some cathartic revenge (this is, afterall, the story that inspired Moby Dick so you can imagine not everything goes well for the sailors).

Thing is, without going into spoilers, there’s more to the survival of these men than just a really pissed-off whale and the movie is pretty gnarly with some decisions and actions. While I wasn’t impressed by the short-hand drama between the characters early on, the survival story told is grueling and compelling.

The scenes on the ocean – be it the look of the ship, the whales, the damage done to ships and animals and other FX shots are all gorgeous. I can’t imagine there’s been a better visual representation of sailing ships (whaling or otherwise) than what’s in this movie. Oh, and it’s kind of gross – these guys are handling a lot of whale blubber and oil, including a scene where a young boy… well… nevermind. You’ll see.

So, yes, not without some small problems (bad accents, short-hand melodrama), this is a surprisingly good movie. I think its getting pretty middling reviews and that’s unfortunate. Makes me wonder if we all saw the same movie or, perhaps, some people are less willing to look past Chris Hemsworth’s shaky accent).

Score: 88