What’s it about?
Moby-Dick is lauded as one of America’s greatest romantic novels. Herman Melville took his own experiences as a whaler to bring the tragic true story of the Essex to life. This is an interpretation of Melville meeting the sole survivor of the shipwreck, and the dramatic recreation of the fateful voyage.

Segue
Dear Chris Hemsworth fangirls, you keep pining for this film, I do not think it contains what you think it contains*

What did we think?
Ishmael^ says: An epic retelling of one man’s monomania that led to the destruction of a great whaling vessel, and the deaths of most of its crew. The brutality and beauty of whaling is told in vivid realism, with impeccable execution: the broad 1820’s Nantucket accents; the graphic harpooning and gutting of a whale; the impending sense of madness and doom. It just feels a tad bloated – a ye olde saga in an age of 15 second attention-spans.

*It says quite clearly on the poster … “Based on the incredible true story that inspired Moby-Dick”. Not “Chris Hemsworth takes his shirt off and reveals his rock-hard abs”.

^Not really, it’s actually me – Stephen Scott – I just thought, for a lark, that for this one review, you could, you know, call me Ishmael?