About ten minutes in to Thirteen Lives, Boy came in and asked me whether it was any good. I said: ‘Well, it’s quite interesting, actually. I think they’ve got the actual cave divers playing themselves, so the acting is really dull and uncharismatic and a bit unconvincing but at the same time it gives the drama a sort of echt documentary feel…’
Boy, peering at screen: ‘But that’s Viggo Mortensen. You know, Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. And Colin Farrell, who you liked in In Bruges.’
Me: ‘Oh.’
Does your main duty lie with the drama or with the truth? Director Ron Howard has opted for the latter
What I still can’t work out is whether my gut response reflects well or badly on the finished product. If you’re making a movie about a real-life event such as the rescue of 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave system in Thailand in 2018, does your main duty lie with the drama or with the truth?
Director Ron Howard has opted for the latter, with mixed results. On the upside you get a balanced overview of the rescue from all perspectives – that of the trapped boys, the anguished parents, the Thai military and political authorities, the local villagers, etc. – and a detailed understanding of just how difficult the extraction operation was. On the downside, it’s too long, it’s a bit flat and linear, and you don’t really get a feel for any of the characters.
For example, the main thing we learn about dour, grimly pragmatic Rick Stanton (Mortensen) is that he doesn’t half love custard cream biscuits; and about fellow cave rescuer John Volanthen that he wears glasses, is a bit anxious and uptight, and has a son waiting at home.

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