Posted at 10:30 a.m.
Two months before the arrival on Netflix of Thai Cave Rescuea series devoted to the same story, and a year after the release of The Rescue, a documentary that received the audience award at the Toronto festival, Amazon Prime Video is releasing this docudrama directed by Hollywood heavyweight Ron Howard. The director of Da Vinci CodeOscar winner thanks to A Beautiful Mindputs its expertise at the service of a story that, not so long ago, attracted the attention of the whole world.
We recreate the incredible rescue mission set up in 2018 to rescue 12 young soccer players – and their coach – trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. The screenplay, written by veteran William Nicholson (Unbroken, Everest) borrows the points of view of Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell), two expert divers, dispatched to the cave of Tham Luang in order to attempt the impossible. They must bring 13 people back to their destination on a small plateau located so far in the flooded cave that it takes six hours to reach it, and another five to return. With long passages under water…
Although the outcome is known, the interest of the story lies in the way the rescuers went about accomplishing their mission, spread over several days. Hence the crucial participation of a diver-anesthetist (Joel Edgerton) in this operation during which new solutions were adopted.
The reconstruction is believable, and the whole is very well done, but Thirteen Lives is content to recreate the event without really trying to explore the emotional impact that such a story can have on individuals. At 147 minutes on the clock, this feature film would probably also have benefited from being tightened up.
Thirteen Lives (Thirteen Lives in French version) is offered exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
Drama
Thirteen Lives (VF: Thirteen Lives)
Ron Howard
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton
2:27 a.m.
On Amazon Prime Video