15 Most Underrated Movies Of The Decade (So Far)

8. The Impossible

Most movies made for an English-speaking audience about tragedies affecting mostly non-English-speaking peoples always wind up facing criticisms of whitewashing. To make something marketable in the US market, you need a star and as most box office friendly stars are white, meaning some bending of events is required.

The Impossible stands out from this often racially insensitive company as was it not only framing the Boxing Day tsunami that ravaged Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka in 2004, killing hundreds of thousands of locals, from the point of view of some middle-class holidaymakers, but switching up the nationality of its real life family from Spanish to English. Urgh, it's going to be one of those then.

Or not. The film is unexpectedly aware of its racial pigeon-holing, at various points making it clear this is just one story from the thousands that unfolded over those days. The backgrounds of crowd shots (including the final one of the movie) are full of unfolding action, the suggestion being that the film has just chosen to hone in on this adventure.

With that bug-bear out of the way, what you're left with is a solid family drama set against recent events that balances the human and the natural; the cast do both gleeful tourists and torn victims convincingly and, with a great use of sound, the overwhelming and unexpected horror of the wave is shudderingly and unforgettably recreated.