Review: Thirteen Lives

Thirteen Lives, directed by Ron Howard, is a survival drama focussing on the rescue of a young football team and their coach from a flooded cave in Thailand. Thirteen Lives is a biographical film, focussing on the events of the Tham Luang cave rescue that held the world’s attention in 2018. Streaming on Amazon Prime since July 2022, the film has garnered predominantly positive critical responses, efficiently dramatizing the thrilling rescue mission.

The events of Thirteen Lives take place in the Chiang Rai Province of northern Thailand, where on the 23^rdJune 2018, a junior football team and their assistant coach became trapped deep within the Tham Luang Nang Non cave. Alongside the Thai government and Navy, British volunteer divers Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell) are enlisted to build a team of specialist divers to assist in the boys’ rescue. The group face a gruelling dive that includes multiple tight passageways, difficult visibility, and the constant concern that water-levels may begin to rise again. The team must rescue the boys before time runs out and monsoon season descends upon the cave.

Thirteen Lives manages to consistently stay fairly accurate as a retelling of the events of the Tham Luang cave rescue. The football team, aged between 11 and 16, and their coach entered the cave after a football practice session and were stuck inside for a total of 17 days. The story gripped the world between June and July of 2018. Although the team managed to successfully extract the team and their coach from the deep cave, two navy SEALs tragically lost their lives due to injuries that they received while navigating the tight confinements of the cave.

The narrative never spent too long dwelling on one single moment or concern, however, spent long enough to keep the stakes consistently high

Thirteen Lives manages to cover many bases with its retelling of these events, flicking between media coverage, the responses of the families, volunteer efforts, and the events going on within the Tham Luang Nang Non cave. The pacing of Thirteen Lives felt very well done. The narrative never spent too long dwelling on one single moment or concern, however, spent long enough to keep the stakes consistently high.

Something that Thirteen Lives was certainly lacking in would be the inclusion of an impactful soundtrack. Although the many moments of the film were nerve-wracking, a notable soundtrack to underscore them could have built the pressure even more. Of course, some of the more claustrophobic moments were very effective when focusing solely on the muffled breaths of the divers, however, a tension-building soundtrack would not have hurt Thirteen Lives.

Mortensen and Farrell confidently control the narrative with ease, dominating the tense drama of Thirteen Lives. Their dynamic is completely believable, and you really feel like you are experiencing the tense events alongside them. It is as if we are taken back to those gripping 17 days. Even though audiences have the privilege of already knowing that the boys will survive the ordeal, Mortensen and Farrell manage to carry the plot’s tension throughout.

The atmosphere that Thirteen Lives’ cinematography produces is entirely claustrophobic

The atmosphere that Thirteen Lives’ cinematography produces is entirely claustrophobic. Headed by Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, the film’s gripping atmosphere is enhanced by many close-up underwater shots, in which the divers’ stress feels raw and intense. The anxiety-inducing nature of these underwater shots leaves audiences breathless, experiencing a side to the Tham Luang cave rescue that could not be understood by the masses in 2018.

Thirteen Lives produces quite an emotional response from its audiences, especially when we are faced with the traumatic effect that it had on the families and crews involved in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave rescue. We are seeing the rescue from multiple different angles that were inaccessible during the real-life event, intensifying the empathy that audiences will feel when re-living the gripping story.

Verdict

Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives is a well-rounded retelling of the Tham Luang Nang Non cave rescue. The film tackles the gripping survival of the football team with care, resulting in a fairly accurate reimagining of the events that took place in 2018. Mortensen and Farrell shine amongst an equally competent cast, deeply immersing audiences in the narrative of this biographical feature. Theirs are stellar performances that feel genuine and emotive, keeping audiences on tenterhooks throughout, even though we already know the story’s outcome from the get-go.