From halfway around the world, it's hard to grasp the enormity of the 2004 tsunami. Striking without warning, the giant wave claimed more than 227,000 lives. About one-fourth of the victims never were found. Those who somehow survived had their own versions of hell as they tried to find loved ones while fending for themselves amid unimaginable devastation.
No film can hope to capture the entire disaster, but Abi Morgan's teleplay and Bharat Nalluri's direction provide a palpable sense of the human misery. The miniseries traces the lives of about a half-dozen individuals in the days after the tsunami. Despite obvious and admirable efforts to replicate the devastation, confusion, desperation and bitterness, you still get the feeling that this production has been sanitized for your protection. Nalluri directs the camera away from most of the ugliness of decaying corpses and gaping wounds and simply can't convey the terrific stench.
Urgent but mundane needs for food, water, clothing and sanitary facilities get short shrift compared to the more theatrical drama of searching for a lost child or discovering that predictions of such an event made years earlier had been ignored. In fact, Morgan designates only a few of his fictional characters to represent the hundreds of thousands of tourists and natives who bore the brunt of the suffering. The rest are journalists, aid workers, government officials and resort executives.
The story given the most attention is that of vacationers Ian Carter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his wife, Susie (Sophie Okonedo). When the tsunami strikes, she's in scuba gear and completely oblivious. He's ashore with no time to escape. When the wave hits, he clings to their 6-year-old daughter but can't hold on. He sees her grab high on a palm tree and can only hope she saved herself.
Gina McKee plays another vacationer, Kim Peabody, who loses her husband and then fights British bureaucracy to get an injured son evacuated to the U.K. Representing the native population is Than (Samrit Machielsen), a Thai waiter whose entire small village is destroyed and whose family perishes.
To provide more perspectives, journalist Nick Fraser (Tim Roth) uncovers several scandals, including plans by resorts to rebuild along fault lines, adding to their properties the land that had belonged to the villagers. That should evoke anger, but compared to the pain and loss of the survivors, it seems like more of a distraction.
The first half of the miniseries plods a bit, weighted down with scenes depicting the impact of the disaster. The second night is more gripping and filled with memorable confrontations and conflicts. Performances are uniformly excellent, particularly those by Ejiofor and Okonedo. The film was shot on location in Bangkok and the formerly ravaged areas of Phuket and Khao Lak in Thailand, lending even greater authenticity to the production design.
TSUNAMI: THE AFTERMATH
HBO
Kudos in association with HBO Films and the BBC
Credits:
Executive producers: Jane Featherstone, Derek Wax, Abi Morgan
Producer: Finola Dwyer
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Teleplay: Abi Morgan
Director of photography: John de Borman
Production designer: Richard Bridgland
Editor: Barney Pilling
Music: Alex Heffes
Set designer: Peter Walpole
Casting: Suzanne Crowley, Gilly Poole, Christine King
Cast:
Nick Fraser: Tim Roth
Ian Carter: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Susie Carter: Sophie Okonedo
Tony Whittaker: Hugh Bonneville
Kim Peabody: Gina McKee
Than: Samrit Machielsen
Kathy Graham: Toni Collette
Ellen Webb: Kate Ashfield
Chai: Will Yun Lee
Pravat Meeko: Grirggiat Punpiputt...
No film can hope to capture the entire disaster, but Abi Morgan's teleplay and Bharat Nalluri's direction provide a palpable sense of the human misery. The miniseries traces the lives of about a half-dozen individuals in the days after the tsunami. Despite obvious and admirable efforts to replicate the devastation, confusion, desperation and bitterness, you still get the feeling that this production has been sanitized for your protection. Nalluri directs the camera away from most of the ugliness of decaying corpses and gaping wounds and simply can't convey the terrific stench.
Urgent but mundane needs for food, water, clothing and sanitary facilities get short shrift compared to the more theatrical drama of searching for a lost child or discovering that predictions of such an event made years earlier had been ignored. In fact, Morgan designates only a few of his fictional characters to represent the hundreds of thousands of tourists and natives who bore the brunt of the suffering. The rest are journalists, aid workers, government officials and resort executives.
The story given the most attention is that of vacationers Ian Carter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his wife, Susie (Sophie Okonedo). When the tsunami strikes, she's in scuba gear and completely oblivious. He's ashore with no time to escape. When the wave hits, he clings to their 6-year-old daughter but can't hold on. He sees her grab high on a palm tree and can only hope she saved herself.
Gina McKee plays another vacationer, Kim Peabody, who loses her husband and then fights British bureaucracy to get an injured son evacuated to the U.K. Representing the native population is Than (Samrit Machielsen), a Thai waiter whose entire small village is destroyed and whose family perishes.
To provide more perspectives, journalist Nick Fraser (Tim Roth) uncovers several scandals, including plans by resorts to rebuild along fault lines, adding to their properties the land that had belonged to the villagers. That should evoke anger, but compared to the pain and loss of the survivors, it seems like more of a distraction.
The first half of the miniseries plods a bit, weighted down with scenes depicting the impact of the disaster. The second night is more gripping and filled with memorable confrontations and conflicts. Performances are uniformly excellent, particularly those by Ejiofor and Okonedo. The film was shot on location in Bangkok and the formerly ravaged areas of Phuket and Khao Lak in Thailand, lending even greater authenticity to the production design.
TSUNAMI: THE AFTERMATH
HBO
Kudos in association with HBO Films and the BBC
Credits:
Executive producers: Jane Featherstone, Derek Wax, Abi Morgan
Producer: Finola Dwyer
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Teleplay: Abi Morgan
Director of photography: John de Borman
Production designer: Richard Bridgland
Editor: Barney Pilling
Music: Alex Heffes
Set designer: Peter Walpole
Casting: Suzanne Crowley, Gilly Poole, Christine King
Cast:
Nick Fraser: Tim Roth
Ian Carter: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Susie Carter: Sophie Okonedo
Tony Whittaker: Hugh Bonneville
Kim Peabody: Gina McKee
Than: Samrit Machielsen
Kathy Graham: Toni Collette
Ellen Webb: Kate Ashfield
Chai: Will Yun Lee
Pravat Meeko: Grirggiat Punpiputt...
- 12/7/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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