I was expecting a mawkish story of a family reuniting after being tossed asunder by the 2005 Asian tsunami, but I got so much more. Yes, the “Bennett” family story was there, but it shared the screen with a more macro vision, of the loss and human tragedy suffered by thousands of others. In a courageous bit of storytelling, even as the Bennetts were whisked away to a happy ending on a private jet, we were visually reminded of all the others who didn’t find their families and didn’t have such a lavish insurance policy, who were left in makeshift shelters and overcrowded relief centers. These others, too, were all just regular people, believable tourists, and it was hard not to think, that could have been me, and what would I have done? Like most movies ”based on a true story,” many of the plot twists were scarcely credible, which the movie’s title seemed to acknowledge; but because the larger picture seemed more important and rang so true, it almost didn’t matter. All the acting was good, and Naomi Watts should get a red badge for going onscreen so battered and bleeding, but the memory that sticks with me is the sound and motion of the characters underwater, being tossed like rag dolls, by the tsunami.
