[ FILM ]
THIRTEEN LIVES
Tense times as the divers and kids attempt to escape.
★★★
OUT NOW (CINEMAS) / 5 AUGUST (PRIME VIDEO) CERT TBC / TBC MINS
DIRECTOR Ron Howard
CAST Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton
PLOT Thailand, June 2018. The Wild Boars junior football team and their coach (Teeradon Supapunpinyo) go missing while exploring caves. When the Royal Thai Navy SEALs rescue mission fails, an expedition led by British cave-divers Richard Stanton (Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Farrell) offers one last hope.
IN A DIRECTING career that kick-started with Tom Hanks falling in love with a fish (Splash), Ron Howard’s interests have gravitated more recently towards true-life stories, both in his dramas (Frost/Nixon, Rush, Hillbilly Elegy) and in his newfound predilection for documentary (portraits of The Beatles and Pavarotti, plus Rebuilding Paradise and We Feed People, two films documenting very different disasters). This passion for veracity is present in Thirteen Lives, Howard’s low-key but ultimately engaging re-staging of the rescue of a Thai kids’ football team trapped in a network of caves filling up with water, the documentary feel of which works to both its detriment and success.