Decomposing Melodrama: The Impossible

DECOMPOSING MELODRAMA:

THE IMPOSSIBLE
director J.A. Bayona

Patricia Garrido Blanco
3rd Media Studies
Film Genre
Subject of analysis: The Impossible

For the goal of this essay, I am going to analyse one film on melodrama. It is a well known movie, even though it was released just a month ago (October 11th 2012). The Impossible has a box office success that goes beyond the one of TheOthers by Amenábar, although the international importance achieved by this last is quite difficult to beat. However, The Impossible will be released in the States the 21st of December, so it is yet to see.

Why The Impossible The reasons for the choice of this film are basically two: first, the intense melodramatic effects that it contains, leaving no one indifferent and very few with dry eyes;secondly, the added interest of the fact that it tells a real story of a Spanish family that survived to the tsunami in Thailand 2004. Some people tend to raise barriers to what they believe is just not true -but the performance of some actors pretending to be hurt, or scared, or in love. But it is slightly different when it comes to a based-on-true-story film. That is, even those that standemotionless with the suffering of Naomi Watts or Ewan McGregor will surrender to tears (at least, interior ones) when they watch the representation of a Spanish family, a real one, that survived to a tsunami that killed thousands of people. It is the representation of a miracle. | | Synopsis The detailed synopsis of the film, as we can read in the official webpage–www.loimposible-lapelicula.com– presents the story as follows: “Maria, Henry and their three sons start their winter holidays in Thailand. One morning the family relaxes at the swimming pool of their hotel after Christmas Day, when the sea, turned into a huge and violent wall of black water, invades the grounds of the hotel. Maria has only time to scream “Watch out, the kids!” before she gets swallowed by the wave. Underwater, she is hit by the rubble until she is barely dead. Finally, she emerges from the rough sea. She stands, injured, holding the trunk of a palm tree, convinced that she has lost her family. But then, her elder son, Lucas, gets out of the water some meters ahead of her. Without any time to assimilate the incredible and unexpected of the natural disaster they just suffered, Maria must fightagainst everything for the survival of her son and her own.“ |

Introduction

The main purpose of cinema is to move the audience. Not only from their houses to theatres, but once in front of the screen, to make them feel what the character is feeling, even if they are aware that person is just an actor or actress.

And the genres that serve more efectively to that purpose are comedy andmelodrama. Because moving the audience is not just about making them cry, but also laugh, smile with tears in their eyes, be scared, frustrated, and then relieved, satisfied.

Some facts on production
The Impossible was produced by Apaches Entertainment and Telecinco Cinema. Warner Brothers is in charge of the distribution of the film in Spain, while Summit Entertainment is for its globaldistribution. Despite the international cast and the shooting in English, it is a hundred per cent Spanish movie, financed with a Spanish budget of 30 million euros. The film is directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, with Sergio G. Sánchez as screenwriter and music by Fernando Velazquez. About the cast, already mentioned Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts play the main roles of the father and mother of the family. TomHolland plays the one of the elder son, a character with plenty of importance throughout the film.

The birth of the project took place when the director, Bayona, got to know about the real story of the family from Belén Atienza –that later would be producer of the film– in 2007. As he stated in an interview with the Spanish magazine Qué!: “The impression this story caused on me was a...