The Mercy

The Mercy

By

  • Genre: Drama, Adventure
  • Release Date: 2018-02-09
  • Runtime: 102 minutes
  • : 5.9
  • Production Company: BBC Film
  • Production Country: United Kingdom
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5.9/10
5.9
From 272 Ratings

Description

In 1968, Donald Crowhurst, an amateur sailor, endangers the fate of his family and business, and his own life, blinded by his ambition to compete in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, attempting to become the first person in history to single-handedly circumnavigate the world without making any stopover.

Trailer

Reviews

  • CinemaSerf

    6
    By CinemaSerf
    Based on the true story of aspiring round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth) this rather disappointingly sluggish drama tries to engage us in the man's lifelong passion. A passion that jeopardises his business, puts him into debt and relegates his wife and two young children to second place as he reckons he can circumnavigate the globe in his catamaran. This isn't a story that I was aware of, historically, but the facts are undeniable so it's really all down to how director James Marsh tells us the story of the determined man. In that respect this doesn't really deliver. Firth brings no sense of peril to the risks of the role. It's as if he was one of those people who would go off climbing mountains in January with just trainers and a t-shirt on. It emphasises way more the venal aspects of funding his participation but not really the competitive or characterful ones and the seaborne action - such as it is - is duck pond stuff that gives us little sense of just how treacherous the ocean can be. Though the denouement did rather swipe at a press that can be desperately fickle, this whole film just didn't ever get going and at almost two hours I felt it dragging as surely as if it had an anchor of it's own. It's a watchable film, but it's certainly not a memorable one.

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