Thirteen Lives

In Thirteen Lives, director Ron Howard turns his attention to the remarkable true story of a group of volunteer divers who embarked on a perilous rescue mission to save a young Thai football team and their coach from a flooded cave. With the monsoon rains pouring in water faster than the pumps can get it out, strong currents making the claustrophobic tunnels exponentially more hazardous and the oxygen in the cave slowly ticking down, Howard, alongside screenwriters William Nicholson and Don MacPherson, underscore the severity of the situation while crafting a taut thriller.

There are no fingers pointing the blame at anything nor are there any antagonists butting heads with the heroes. The goal of this film is to present audiences with the harrowing situation and the extraordinary lengths those involved went through to get the boys out safely. After the team steps into the cave at the start of the film, viewers are left in the dark about their situation. Like the initial rescue divers on the scene (played wonderfully by Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen), we can only hope that their worst fears aren’t realised. And as the operation grows in complexity and danger, cinemagoers will be holding their breath along with them during every dive.

There are some drawbacks when presenting the events from this objective viewpoint. Namely, the audience remains detached from the characters, especially the thirteen in the cave who barely have any agency or presence in the film. This is as much their story as it is anyone else’s. Not giving more attention to the struggles they faced during the many days in the darkness feels like a missed opportunity to develop the drama and flesh out the script.

Likewise, after crafting a myriad of visually unnerving sequences within the flooded caverns, Howard ultimately gives in to the feel-good fanfare when the dust settles. While the emotional payoff is certainly well earned after everything viewers have been put through within the past two and a half hours, the slight tonal shift is noticeably jarring and wholly unnecessary.

Howard creates a tightly paced nail-biter with Thirteen Lives. While its nonstop dramatic tension will keep one on edge throughout, the absence of emotional engagement alongside the derivative ending will likely leave some feeling short-changed.