For those who were busy spelunking during the summer of 2018, a quick refresher: after an ill-fated afternoon expedition, 12 school-age boys and their soccer coach became trapped inside a flooded cave system in northern Thailand. After an international rescue effort involving more than 10,000 people, and pivoting around the controversial decision to anaesthetize the boys with ketamine to prevent them from panicking on the dive back to safety, every single member of the group was rescued safely .
Ron Howard enlists a handful of excellent performers for the film, including Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen, Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman.The rescue was the kind of headline-grabbing drama with the rare happy-ish ending that was guaranteed to inspire a slew of adaptations. But after having watched three different versions of the same tale now, with the knowledge that there’s a whole yet-to-air miniseries still on the way courtesy of Netflix and producer Jon M.
Certainly, Howard’s version is leagues above Irish-Thai director Tom Waller’s first-past-the-post movie, a slapdash, no-frills dramatization that only scores curiosity points for casting some of the divers as themselves.
Thirteen Lives rehashes much of the details and revelations already covered in Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s excellent documentary, The Rescue.devotes a generous amount of face-time to Thai officials, as well as the actual family members of the boys .
Again, this might all hit differently for those who only remember scant details of the original incident – and there is much to recommend in watching a heavily accented Mortensen splash around in a wetsuit while gently sparring with the always-charming Farrell. But if you want to save yourself, and your monthly Prime Video subscription fee, dive over to Disney+, where