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Nine years after a lukewarm box office and mixed reviews, the 2015 adventure drama In the Heart of the Sea sails into newfound success via streaming.
Helmed by Ron Howard, the sea survival movie stars Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Holland, bringing to life a true, terrifying account of the Essex, a whaling ship attacked by a gigantic sperm whale in 1820 that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Once receiving a lukewarm reception, In the Heart of the Sea has been inching its way up the streaming charts, especially on Max, among titles such as Bad Boys for Life and Get Hard.
Despite all the high-profile casting and a generally intriguing story, Howard’s movie initially did poorly at the box office due to partially muddled execution and CGI effects that some critics felt were unrealistic. What did stay consistent with viewers, though, was how impressed they were with the fierce performances. Hemsworth invested his character, First Mate Owen Chase, with an old-fashioned heroism and charm; Murphy brought nuance to Matthew Joy, the ship’s surgeon.
Actors went through extreme physical training and lived on a restricted diet to show what their characters would endure. These performances are the high points of the film, other than the final act, which is all drama and really puts a powerful conclusion on this tragic journey that Essex has gone on.
If the resurgence has one root, it’s perhaps the recent respective career highs of its cast: Murphy’s well-reviewed turn in Oppenheimer; Hemsworth’s Extraction series, still ongoing; and Holland’s very public return to Spider-Man. As for Howard himself, who would go on to direct Solo: A Star Wars Story and has projects such as Eden lined up, In the Heart of the Sea acts as a testament to his love of sprawling historical dramas, even if its divisive tone meant it didn’t quite catch on.
Though still at an unimpressive 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, In the Heart of the Sea has finally found the welcome mat online it so rightly deserves. Proof that streaming could give new life to films that were otherwise lost at sea.
