In the Heart of the Sea
Warner Bros. | Release Date: December 11, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
32
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 10, 2015
The images are impressive. But the characters and their development leave something to be desired. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 9, 2015
Director Howard, his actors, and indeed the entire salty sweep of the film are all aided tremendously by visual-effects supervisor Jody Johnson and his team’s spectacular combination of live action and flawless, awe-inspiring CGI creations, chief among them the great, white whale. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 10, 2015
In the Heart of the Sea plays as if the joke was real and everyone on the production had caved in. The result, as a movie, is a joke. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJan 15, 2016
The conversion to 3-D has left the movie looking grim and dim. Almost every scene, whether indoors by candlelight or upon the open ocean, seems awkwardly dark; competent 3-D effects don’t compensate for this distraction. Equally drab are the performances, except for Gleeson and Whishaw. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 10, 2015
I wish Howard's film had more of a distinct personality and drive behind it; Howard's made some supremely enjoyable films, in various keys, but this waterlogged, effects-crazed picture isn't one of them. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 11, 2015
If the movie accomplishes nothing else, though, I hope it inspires the curious to actually sit down and finally read “Moby-Dick.” It’s an extraordinary yarn. Really. Read full review
60
CineVueAdam LowesDec 25, 2015
Despite the best efforts of the filmmakers, In the Heart of the Sea is a few knots away from being the transformative cinema experience intended. Read full review
42
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerDec 14, 2015
Unfortunately, the reverence Howard and screenwriter Charles Leavitt seem to feel for the material ultimately dooms it to—if you’ll pardon the seafaring reference—float along in the doldrums, doomed to a driftless existence enlivened only by the occasional giant whale. Read full review
40
EmpireIan NathanJan 4, 2016
For all the special effects and half-starved A-listers, this is a sodden beast. Perhaps there’s a reason that Melville only told half the story. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyDec 9, 2015
Howard’s film, for all of its storytelling skill, technical polish, and rousing high-seas sequences, never quite casts the spell it should. It’s too polite to give us a real feeling of life or death. Its sense of danger is watered down. Read full review
50
HitfixDrew McWeenyDec 14, 2015
Overall, it is false, both narratively and visually, in a way that just doesn't sit right with me, and it feels like a lesser effort from Howard, an itch he scratched but that hold little interest for anyone else. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 10, 2015
The whale is wondrous but the drama not so much in In the Heart of the Sea. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 10, 2015
You come away from the movie lamenting the missed opportunity and wondering what a stronger, bolder filmmaker would have done with this material. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 8, 2015
Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea merely unravels the yarn that inspired the great book, a good-looking film that never sinks, but never really soars either. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Dec 9, 2015
This movie has Chris Hemsworth, in between "Avengers" movies, and a lot of computer-generated sea life. It uses a lot of fancy lures, but it never hooks you. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriDec 11, 2015
In the Heart of the Sea isn’t a bad film, necessarily. It has some genuinely effective passages in its first half, and Howard is nothing if not a dutiful, check-the-boxes kind of director. But a story like this – one of horror and madness, which helped give birth to an ornate masterpiece of obsession – needs to go a little crazy. And this director doesn’t do crazy. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickDec 10, 2015
Presenting a “true” adventure about a giant whale that supposedly inspired “Moby-Dick” raises tsunami-high expectations about In the Heart of the Sea that are crushed as thoroughly as if star Chris Hemsworth had brought down his “Thor” hammer on the entire enterprise. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedDec 9, 2015
There are aspects afloat reminiscent of the great 1946 sea epic "Two Years Before the Mast", but Chris Hemsworth is no Alan Ladd. He is to the majesty of a ship at sea what a clamshell is to the bottom of a canoe. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerDec 10, 2015
In the Heart of the Sea doesn't trust itself enough to be great. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 10, 2015
The biggest problem with In the Heart of the Sea is its episodic nature. Especially during the post-sinking saga, things don’t flow smoothly. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzDec 11, 2015
And this is ultimately what damages In the Heart of the Sea more than anything else: it is so very many different things, but they all feel detached from each other, almost like a bunch of self-contained mini-movies stitched end-to-end, with the framing device serving as needle and thread. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 10, 2015
Only landlubbers would resist the rousing action of man versus leviathan. Sure it's old-school. So what. Howard puts heart, soul and every computerized whale trick in the book into crafting a seafaring adventure to rock your boat. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 10, 2015
With In the Heart of the Sea, director Ron Howard has given us a painstakingly crafted bore, a lovingly rendered snooze, and a very expensive means by which audiences can experience restless leg syndrome before being carted off to the land of happy slumber. Read full review
60
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganDec 2, 2015
Fluid, shifting and tense, the action here easily outstrips the film’s basic set-up (man tests himself against nature, is humbled), which can feel like unconvincing filler between surges of effects work. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyDec 15, 2015
Even when the film does try to rouse emotion, it feels like a last minute attempt to make up for lack of character development. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayDec 8, 2015
The narrative is helplessly adrift, a yarn that extols vague grit and determination with no discernible through line. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 10, 2015
An oddly uninvolving adventure story. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 9, 2015
The movie has all the propulsion of a trolling motor, traversing long-charted dramatic waters. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyDec 9, 2015
Even though In The Heart Of The Sea’s framing device often feels like it was written by someone who’d never read a word of Melville, its visual style makes for a bold approximation of his allusive prose. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerDec 14, 2015
At the heart of the problem with this period piece is an absence of a riveting scene or a memorable slice of dialogue. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan HoffmanDec 2, 2015
Director Ron Howard does a solid job of getting the smell of salt off the page and into the picture. The first half works quite well simply as a procedural, but when the action comes we run into trouble. The well-earned seriousness is washed away as we’re broadsided by B-movie tropes. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 2, 2015
A sort of maritime Donner Party, In the Heart of the Sea is a rugged but underwhelming true-life drama of a cursed 19th century whaling voyage. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 10, 2015
As the movie lurches along by fits and starts, toggling between the little Nantucket room and the great watery world, it becomes apparent that the filmmakers have no idea how to reconcile not just two parallel stories but also the past and our contemporary age. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 14, 2015
If you want a Ron Howard movie about a man obsessed with a creature from the deep, In the Heart of the Sea, sadly, is not the place to start. Try “Splash.” Read full review
50
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezDec 3, 2015
Visual daring is nice, but it means little in the end when the ultimately safe and harmless story never rocks the boat. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenDec 14, 2015
The whale special effects, computer-generated of course, are genuinely spectacular. Read full review
60
The TelegraphHelen O'HaraDec 2, 2015
There’s so much incident crammed into this tale of misfortune that there’s never quite enough time to truly tangle with the sheets and sails of its meaning. Read full review
40
The VergeTasha RobinsonDec 10, 2015
Howard shows his viewers what happened to these sailors, but he rarely offers any sense of who they were, or what it felt like to face their situation. Read full review
45
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 2, 2015
Lovers of spectacle for spectacle’s sake will come away from the film with many discrete sequences to admire, but there’s not enough of a human element to bridge them together. In terms of its lasting power, In the Heart of the Sea roars in like a great tide, but then just as quickly dissipates. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 3, 2015
The picture is sometimes wayward and unwieldy, its dialogue creaky and awkward, like an amateur’s attempt at scrimshaw.... But in a movie climate rife with superhero reboots and rehashings of childhood favorites, it’s a small marvel that In the Heart of the Sea exists at all. Read full review
60
Time OutTom HuddlestonDec 8, 2015
The dramatic scenes are a touch overcooked, and there are moments when it feels like a particularly high-end school play, with everyone shouting “Avast!” and “Ahoy!” like they really mean it. The action, though, is consistently impressive: When man and beast go toe-to-tail, your timbers will be truly well shivered. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt MaytumDec 2, 2015
Given the weighty themes of Moby Dick, In The Heart Of The Sea doesn't have a lot going on behind the outward action. The composite parts are in fine working order; it's the sum that's slightly lacking. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 10, 2015
In the Heart of the Sea really gives Hemsworth a chance to shine. He’s not just the hammer-slinging Thor: The Aussie continues to make the most of his dramatic work — as in Howard’s 2013 Formula 1 film "Rush" — and showcases a considerable amount of gravitas. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangDec 2, 2015
In the Heart of the Sea feels stiff and unconvincing, weirdly devoid of texture, and populated by ciphers who speak primarily in the leaden language of exposition. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonDec 8, 2015
Howard is great at capturing the timbre of the ship, the creaks and snaps and the whir of the hemp lines, and the sonar clicks of the whales strategizing below. All his sound and fury has a befuddling purpose. His emotional climax is about, well, disaster insurance. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 10, 2015
The script, by Charles Leavitt, is dead in the water, and the drama is too, despite billowing sails and pods of whales. Instead of “Jaws” it’s a turgid “Tails.” Read full review
50
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanDec 10, 2015
It’s a tentative, half-realized tale that ultimately suffers from a significant identity crisis. Read full review
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