The 33
On August 5, 2010, 33 miners became trapped in a Chilean mine for months. This was a story that swept the nation and the media was all over it. Even I have vivid memories of watching CNN coverage of it. Of course, it was only a matter of time before we got a film adaptation of it.
The 33 is that movie. While there were 33 men in the mine, you are actually only introduced to a small group of the miners. Mario Sepulveda (Antonio Banderas) rises as the leader of the group and he’s known to do vlogs. Luis Urzuia (Lou Diamond Phillips) is known to make maps of the caves for a possible rescue. Edison Pena (Jacob Vargas) loves Elvis Presley and is known to follow his style. The very likable Laurence Golborne (Rodrigo Santaro) is the Chilean Minister of Works who’s the main key to getting the miners out.
The acting here is completely fine and nobody is unlikable but you can’t get much of a feel for any of the characters. It is hard at times to keep track of names and the movie tries to have the Antonio Banderas character stand out but he’s just too plain. The 33 basically needs another act so we can get more in touch with these characters.
With an Indiana Jones vibe, The 33 does provides a nice atmosphere with the scenes set in the mine. It doesn’t have a claustrophobic feel to it because there are many scenes that take place outside of the mine with the rescue team.
The 33 does a nice job of showing how these men become trapped and it’s quite interesting that the actual filming took place in Copiapo, Chile; the town where this story took place. Despite that, you never along the way get a feeling of Chilean national pride in this. Sure, you see flags here and there and Spanish is spoken at times but you could have told me this was an American desert and I could have bought that. This feels like Hollywood making a good foreign story feel a little too Hollywood.
Like anyone, I have so much respect for these miners and their accomplishments. Sadly, the adaptation of this great story feels like a Lifetime-quality show at times. Even if just above average, this is one of the bigger disappointments of 2015.
