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The Mercy

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The Mercy

Name: The Mercy
Director: James Marsh
Genre: Adventure, Documentary, Drama, Mystery
Released: 2017
Duration: 1 h 37 min
Cast: Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis, Ken Stott, Jonathan Bailey

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Adventure
Documentary

2017
James Marsh
97 mins
12A

Summary

Drama based on a true story, starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz. In October 1968, amateur yachtsman Donald Crowhurst sets out on a round-the-world race. But the event proves more difficult than Crowhurst has anticipated, and with the threat of failure looming, his mental health declines.

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Terry Payne

Writers and film-makers have convened many times to adjudicate on the actions of amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst. He was the man who vanished overboard in 1969 after mentally unravelling at sea during the first nonstop solo race around the world - a race he was catastrophically ill-prepared for - leaving behind a grieving wife and four young children. As Crowhurst, Colin Firth attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of a man history hasn't treated too kindly, pitching from affable optimist onshore (you get a sense of Richard Briers's character in The Good Life) to tormented and desperately unstable after six months of solitude at sea. It's an uncomfortable study of a man who realises he's about to lose everything: "I can't go on, and I can't go home. What is there?" he laments. As he begins fabricating his position in the race, he's aided and abetted by his PR man back in England, brilliantly played by the scene-stealing David Thewlis. Director James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) draws superbly nuanced performances from Rachel Weisz, who plays Crowhurst's supportive wife, and Ken Stott as the businessman who funded the sailor's dream but whose penalty clause meant that Crowhurst forfeited house and business if he didn't finish the race. A compelling story told with care and compassion.

imdb-square

6.0/10