Film Review: ‘The 33’ – Strong Performances, Thinly-Stretched Plot

While The 33 is full of strong performances and plenty of heart-tugging emotion, in the end it just doesn’t work.

The 33 is the real-life story of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped in the San Jose Mine in Chile for 69 days in August 2010. With more than 2000 feet of rock and debris blocking their escape, the miners had to rely on instinct and each other to survive in the harsh, dark, hot underground with only minimal food and water supplies. The film, however, does not focus solely on the miner’s plight, but also on the drama of what was going on above ground – and this is where it stumbles most.

This isn’t your traditional disaster film. In fact, the collapse of the mine is played out in a very perfunctory way and the tension it should have wrought is rather muted throughout the film – while instead, we are trapped in a loop of three relationship stories that never truly hit the mark. The major focus of the film is on “Super” Mario Sepúlveda played by Antonio Banderas in one of his strongest performances ever. Sepúlveda became the center of public attention after the collapse because of the video logs he would keep and send up to the rescuers to let everyone know how the miners were faring.

Juliette Binoche is grossly miscast as Maria, the sister of one of the miners Dario Segovia (Juan Pablo Raba). Why is it so hard to cast actors of the appropriate race, rather than consistently whitewashing history? Her part is completely emotionally driven, a meager attempt to cram as much hope (and tears) down the audience’s throat as humanly possible. Much of the movie is focused on her raving at authorities for not doing enough to help her brother and the other miners trapped below.

The individual stories, each growing more thinly stretched as the movie plods onward, are disoriented as they play over each other. There is a divide somewhere, and a lot of opportunity lost. Most especially, the political aspect of what has happened to these mines in Chile (most of them over a hundred years old and completely unsafe) and how it has affected the industry and the miners themselves goes grossly underrepresented. Instead of truly gripping melodrama, we are reminded again and again, in a most confusing way, that this movie is about hope – and more or less about forgiveness.

Instead of taught, political and emotional drama after a horrible disaster, The 33 instead chooses to fall deep into a pit of clichés. It is easy to forgive (and hard not to get caught up in the rescue), however – because this film is full of strong performances and enough drama that pulls hard at your heartstrings.

I just wish there had been more to think about.

The 33

Run Time: 120 minutes

Rated PG-13 for a disaster sequence and some language

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche, Juan Pablo Raba, Martin Sheen

Director: Patricia Riggen

Writers: Jose Rivera, Mikko Alanne, Craig Borten, Michael Thomas