Colin Firth does brave, moving work as sailor Donald Crowhurst in a somewhat successful biopic.
A noble attempt to fictionalise an impossible story.
Despite the hint of a stiff-upper-lip kind of reserve, this is astonishingly brutal. And Firth’s performance makes this dark, dark story land.
It remains a puzzling and ambiguous tale. In Marsh’s hands, it is part comedy, part adventure, part love story and a large part horror movie.
Though there’s certainly an intriguing story buried in here somewhere, the film abandons it in its efforts to valorise Crowhurst and his foolhardy dream while demonising the press for doing its job.
The tragic fibber of the high seas’ descent into despair and delusion is subtly explored by Firth, but the film flinches from the sailor’s horrible denouement.
The Mercy has the feel of an old-fashioned Ealing-style drama.
Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz can’t save this dramatisation of a tragic real-life yachting adventure from foundering.
A doomed, depressing tale and often two-dimensional tale saved by Firth and the sea.
General release. Check local listings for show times.