The Perfect Storm

It's very hard to make a good book into a good movie, even a good book that seems inherently cinematic, as this one does, with all its swirling winds and crashing waves. The special effects and the action scenes are excellent, but this film fails in many ways. The dialogue is corny, with lines like "This is where they separate the men from the boys." The storm doesn't happen until an hour and a half into the film, and each of the characters is trotted out to show one identifying characteristic. Wahlberg, Fichtner, Lane, and Reilly, four fine actors, are left more adrift by the script than their characters are by the storm, while the talents of other good actors are wasted. The book tells a sad story, but the film just feels maudlin, and the scenes on land following the storm go on too long. This is where we really need some insight and some good dialogue, and we just don't get it. And there is one scene, just before one character dies, where he speaks to a loved one and sees her in an apparition that even the producers of "Message in a Bottle" would have been embarrassed to try.