johnnygrama I cant possibly imagine for what reason he suicides when he was almost at the end of his endeavour having a cute candid family he gave up so stupidly.So dumb....I hate this weak absurd minds

swooned Watch the doco on the man and the race here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460766/reference. Way better than this. This really captures nothing of what it is like to be on the water alone. It is interesting we idolise the failure when the heroes in the race are so amazing. I feel sorry for the man, but what a crazy undertaking to take with so little experience. No one is really capturing what the real people are like. The doco is amazing. I've watched so many times because the characters themselves are so incredibly different in themselves. FYI, in this first race, it took about 9-10 months. Today, the record is shy of 43 days. This is usually contested every 4 years with the Vendee Globe, but there are always independent challenges. Truly amazing.

Jake Young Colin Firth takes lead in this incredible story based on true events of amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst's attempt to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly on his self-designed trimaran, as part of the Sunday Times Golden Globe race. Under the pressure of a publicity agent hyping his story to exceeding proportions, expecting sponsors and the self-applied noose of possible debt should he not finish the race, mounts the struggle of Donald Crowhurst to the highest proportions.Giving this movie its backbone is the heavy emotional weight throughout, director James Marsh turns an otherwise quite controversial person and event into a sympathetic and quite touching story. It's a story that today needs to be told more, one of the pressures that men face and their inability to talk out about them. It's this coupled with the terrific pacing and structure of The Mercy that allows the audience to connect to Donald Crowhurst, as a dreamer and as somebody who had misfortunes that he was unable to deal with alone. It's only reinforced by the excellent performances given by Rachel Weisz and Colin Firth, that add a much-needed soulful and human touch to the film and grounding it for the audience, whereas a misplaced casting choice might have resulted in a far less captivating story.However, while the story is one that is sure to hold a sympathetic gaze, what the film fails to achieve and execute properly is demonstrating how truly isolated and consumed with pressure Donald Crowhurst was. The film needed more time, this would have allowed further scenes of Donald on the boat so that much like The Life of Pi or even Castaway the audience could have tapped into that isolation. Instead, the film edits back and forth the boat and Crowhurst's family, this does, of course, keep the emotional tension high but dramatically it is weak, never buying into Crowhurst's isolated madness it puts the film on a weak footing. This might not have been a huge issue if the story's focal point was elsewhere but it's not, the most crucial part of the story is the pressure and isolation that Donald faced on the boat, it sacrifices a highly layered look into Donald Crowhurst for its emotional tension. The film needed less time reinforcing emotional backdrop and more time heightening the dramatic point of the story.The Mercy is a film that depending on what you came to see, you will enjoy it more or less. The emotional backdrop is orchestrated perfectly, never missing a beat and tapping the audience into the supportive and hearty theme but the dramatic focal point of the film is underplayed and does not do much in the way of aiding the audience in its comprehending of Donald Crowhurst.

Kapten Video A heart wants what it wants. It's the end of the 1960's, and this solid family man (Colin Firth) wants to take his Sunday hobby of sailing to the ultimate level, designing his own boat and travelling around the world in six months - alone, as part of the contest.Also starring, Rachel Weisz as the man's wife, David Thewlis, and, well, a whole lot of ocean. Based on a true story, by the way.The central part of "The Mercy" is watching Firth's character Donald Crowhurst defying dangers and both physical and psychological hardships of sailing the ocean, having to rely only on his hands, wits and hope that nothing critical breaks down because the contest won't allow making stops or having breaks during the world travelling tour.A worn-down man sulking on a boat in the middle of nowhere might seem like a boring idea for a feature-length movie, but somehow the authors have managed to get it right, so it turns out to be quite a gripping.What was essentially a exhausting and monotonous journey where the main activities were shovelling out the water and trying to keep the whole thing from drowning, is enriched by portraying the gradual mental eroding of Crowhurst.Colin Firth is known as versatile actor and you can bet your sweet bottom that he does a wonderful job at conveying the depression, loneliness, exhaustion and general distress of his character, so he is able to command our attention whenever he's on screen.And all that is his usual reserved and delicate way, living the character, not acting it.It's easily an awards worthy performance although at this time it's way too early to predict his chances of getting an Oscar nomination.The same goes, by the way, to Rachel Weisz who has created a a surprisingly soulful and charming supporting role from what surely must have been a mostly decorative one on paper.She does not have much screen time actually, but it gets compensated by a powerful speech in the end. A true Oscar moment, as they would say.Parallel to Crowhurst's journey, we see bits from the life of people who wait for his return, including the family - but also his promoter trying to earn him some money for the expensive trip that threatens to bankrupt the whole family.This turns out to be the movie's weakness which, while not quite ruining the dramatic impact of the whole thing, does not actually expand or strengthen the main story in a meaningful way.It's okay in short doses - if only for variety's sake - but its emotional "nutritive value" falls flat compared to what's happening on the sea.The director James Marsh's previous project, "The Theory of Everything", suffers from the same deficiency. It's pretty and watchable but he should have trimmed the final act.That's all I wanted to say about this one. "The Mercy" is pretty good but its shallower side holds it back a notch. I am happy to have seen it but it will not linger on memory for long. Although I did like the deeper message that with grandiose plans comes a danger of falling into prison of one's own ego.We have seen many instances of at least two similar-themed movies released in the same period of time. It also happens here, with "The Mercy" preceded by premiere of "Crowhurst" by almost five months, although the latter got a proper cinema release in the U.K. a few weeks later.