Joe Carnahan Takes Aim At A Tragic Real Life Story

PLOT: A group of friends’ fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they’re left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.

REVIEW: Truthfully, I had never even heard of the true story of Nick Schuyler and his friends being stranded out in the ocean during a storm. I must not have been paying close attention to the news because I feel like two NFL players dying in a tragic accident would have definitely been heavily in the news cycle. But maybe it’s more just showing my age than anything. It’s a truly harrowing story and, since I wasn’t familiar with it before, I can’t really speak to how much in Not Without Hope is dramatized for the sake of entertainment. But it feels respectful overall.

There’s a lot of tension throughout the story of Not Without Hope. whether it’s witnessing the four guys and their last moments with the people they love, or the incoming storm that is going to wreak havoc upon them. This is the ultimate “put yourself in their shoes” situation, and it’s scary to think how truly helpless the situation is. The film intercuts between the four stranded men and the search for them by the Coast Guard. It can be pretty hammy and over the top, especially seeing how much the potential rescuers are all job and no character.

The entire cast does a decent job, with Zachary Levi taking on the role of the sole survivor. With Levi’s casting, I really wasn’t sure what to expect, since he’s taken on some pretty strange roles as of late after being essentially cancelled. Quentin Plair, Marshall Cook, and Terrence Terrell all have a good dynamic together, and feel like legitimate friends. That helps to sell what happens to them later even more. And Josh Duhamel, while the character itself is very one-dimensional, embodies the “take charge government type” well. He ultimately just feels a bit pointless.

I was pleasantly surprised with how straightforward the story is with the accident, and the effects always work well. Despite obviously taking place in a water tank most of the time, it never feels too constrained. There was a moment where sharks appear in the water, and I was just waiting for it to go for some crazy jump scares. Thankfully, the story remains grounded and the corniness mostly comes from how hokey the rescue element is. Schuyler’s mom immediately knowing something is wrong and being so forceful with the rescue feels so corny. I think it would have worked a lot better had we not left these guys and could fully experience the feeling of being stranded.

Director Joe Carnahan gets to try something a bit different here, with more of a focus on the emotion and drama than the more bombastic action we’re used to seeing from him. He handles the shipwreck really well, with it never feeling too staged or cheap. I also appreciated how impactful each of the deaths are, taking a more realistic approach. You really feel for each of these men. While, sure the night time scenes are a bit too bright given that they are in the middle of the ocean, that’s just something we have to accept in modern day movies. It’s better then never properly seeing anything.

Not Without Hope is a very depressing story that remains riveting despite some of its missteps in the portions away from our survivors. If it weren’t based on a true story, it would almost be unbelievable that there were even any survivors as it seems like such a low percentage likelihood given the circumstances. I think it would have been improved with a tighter runtime, as I’m not sure the story really warranted it. I’m definitely going to be looking more into the real life story so I suppose that’s a win for this film.

Not Without Hope is Now Playing