The Finest Hours is a really good movie that is based on a true story.

The movie (117 minutes, rated PG-13) is set in Massachusetts in the 1950s and starts out with Bernie Webber (played by Chris Pine) being set up on a blind date with a young woman named Miriam (Holliday Grainger).

Fast forward a couple of months and Bernie and Miriam are engaged, but before they get to move forward with the wedding, Webber must first ask the permission of his new captain, Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana).

The movie shifts gears a little bit, switching to the scene aboard an oil tanker named the Pendleton. One of the fiercest storms to ever hit the East Coast, rips the ship in half, dumping tons of oil all the way to Nantucket and knocking most of the crew unconscious and fighting to stay alive in hopes of being rescued as they take orders from the chief engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck)

Back on land, Cluff’s inexperience shows when he sends a four-man crew, led by Webber, out to sea, in a hair-raising attempt to bring the trapped crew members aboard the oil tanker home.

The rest of the film shows Webber and his crew struggling to get to the ship and save the men, while Miriam is back at the base begging Cluff to bring Webber and his crew back home.

Some of the movie’s dialogue was hard to understand, but it didn’t really matter, since a good chunk of the movie was more technical stuff and action as the crew aboard the Pendleton had to do a lot of strategic things in order to keep the ship from sinking.

The movie was so interesting to me because Bernie had to really think quickly after losing his compass in the hurricane-like conditions, and he really had to think after seeing how many survivors were aboard the Pendleton and not knowing if in fact the boat that he was on would hold the survivors.

The film is packed with emotion, entertainment and even some well-timed comic relief between the characters. My only negative remark is that it didn’t really do a good job of character development and helping the audience understand the background of some of the characters.

The film brought in $10,288,932 on its opening weekend, good enough for fourth at the domestic box office, according to boxofficemojo.com

The movie can be seen in 2D and 3D, but if you’re looking for great 3D features, save your money and go see it in 2D.

The Finest Hours is a very good movie overall. I loved the story and if you love true stories, go see it.