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THE MERCY | FILM REVIEW
****
Dir: James Marsh
Starring: Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis
(12A, 1hr 41 mins)
Colin Firth excels in this heartbreaking true story of yachtsman Donald Crowhurst and his ill-fated attempt to win the 1968 Golden Globe race.
A novice yachtsman and amateur inventor, Crowhurst decided to enter the yacht race, a one-man circumnavigation of the globe in search of adventure, but also to earn money and make his family proud. However, he was ill-equipped, ultimately setting out onto the water too late, riddled with doubt, in a yacht that is not fit for purpose.
The Mercy follows him as he strays from the race and ends up alone at sea, completely lonely, with the added pressure of trying to come home a winner, the plucky underdog who succeeds. Back at home supportive wife Clare (Rachel Weisz) waits with their children for news, whilst being exposed to the brunt of the press, with Crowhurst’s folly becoming world-wide news masterminded by David Thewlis’ slimy publicist.
Alongside this, one of the funders of Crowhursts’ dream has made put up his house as collateral for the race – Crowhurst becomes trapped, having to go through with a race that he may not survive in order to keep his family afloat and appease the nation’s press.
Firth brilliantly conveys Crowhurst’s gradual breakdown as the weight of his badly-thought-through ambition overwhelms him. He has always been an actor superb at keeping a stiff upper lip, the quintessential Englishman, but here he provides a heartbreaking melancholy to Crowhurst, a man unable to allow anyone to think the worst of him. Rachel Weisz makes something far more of what would otherwise be a standard loyal-wife role, creating a tender, believable relationship, aware of the risks but understanding of her husband’s taste for adventure. She is exploited by the press in his absence as the media frenzy grows. A Brit setting sail into a world he does not understand in an unsteady, unready ship can be seen as a very timely metaphor for Brexit, with Crowhurst gradually losing grip on reality as he struggles on blindly.
Under James Marsh’s direction – who has previously helmed the nail-biting documentary Man on Wire and the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything – and Scott Z. Burns’ script, The Mercy becomes far more than just a failed sailor’s biopic; it has a deep resonance with the state of the nation. Moving and gripping, it’s some of Firth’s finest work and haunts long after it’s finished.
words KEIRON SELF
Out now in cinemas