The Impossible(Lo imposible)

Movieline by

The latter half of The Impossible is so disappointingly movie-ish, tying a bow on the events after portraying them too vividly to allow them to be wrapped so neatly. It wrings out tears with an industrious efficiency that leaves you feeling manhandled after the exhilarating, terrifying footage that's unfolded before.

Slant Magazine by Ed Gonzalez

A sham realist's disaster movie, tackily insulting the deaths of 300,000 people by reducing the horrors of the Indian Ocean tsunami to a series of genre titillations.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

It suffers from the greater problem of emphasizing a feel-good plot within the context of mass destruction.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

The film's adult leads, Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, give powerful, natural performances.

Variety by Justin Chang

Wrenchingly acted, deftly manipulated and terrifyingly well made.

Observer by Rex Reed

Put a staggering accomplishment called The Impossible, from Spanish director J. A. Bayona, at the top of the season's must-see list.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen

The Impossible looks back at a natural calamity with unflinching honesty. It sees fear and pain, it sees fortitude and bravery, but mainly it sees this: In that raging instant when the sea becomes its own monster, there's precious little to separate the devoured from the spared – nothing but the thin wedge of luck.