Based on a Spanish family's experiences during the devastating South Asian tsunami, The Impossible opens with a dull roar and darkness. A calm blue ocean appears, then a plane screams into the frame as if launched from the projection booth, jolting you into the film's turbulent reality. Juan Antonio Bayona's film is a technological marvel, but it's also emotionally rich and life-affirming.
The family has been recast as British: Henry Belon (Ewan McGregor), wife Maria (Naomi Watts) and their three young sons, who are vacationing in Thailand over winter break. After the tidal wave hits, mother and eldest son Lucas (the...