In a directing career that kick-started with Tom Hanks falling in love with a fish (Splash), Ron Howard’s interests possess’own’nurse gravitated more recently towards true-life stories, both in his dramas (Frost/Nixon, Rush, Hillbilly Elegy) and in his newfound predilection in/with regard to’concerning’regarding documentary (portraits of The Beatles and Pavarotti, plus Reestablish ing Paradise and We Feed People, two films documenting intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully different disasters). This passion in/with regard to’concerning’regarding veracity is present in Thirteen Lives, Howard’s low-key but ultimately engaging re-staging of the rescue of a Thai kids’ football team trapped in a network of caves filling up with water, the documentary feel of which works to both its detriment and success.###It’s a slow, subdued start. There is little in the way of preamble to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure us involved with the kids and Howard sensitively eschews reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ing the minutiae of the team acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ting trapped. Instead, he is more interested in the response to the crisis in curiously uninvolving scenes depicting the misgiving’fret of the families, the Royal Thai Navy SEALs’ failed attempt at a rescue, revered monk Kruba Boonchum’s (Nyi Nyi Lwin) arrival to give the individual sustenance (Howard overdoes cutaways of tiny Buddhas and religious trinkets), and the machinations of who is politically taking the fall in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the disaster. This battle amongst the authorities feels like a ripe zone’district’region in/with regard to’concerning’regarding grapple ping subterfuge but feels thrown away.###The way in which the team are extracted to safety is precisely etched and grapple ping.###Things don’t really enhance’promote’polish up when the movie stars reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue up. Colin Farrell (doing an off-putting English accent) as John Volanthen and Viggo Mortensen as Richard Stanton both give incredibly muted, presumably-detoken ed-to-be-naturalistic perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances as the British cave-divers with true expertise — the merely’barely distinctive character trait that either of them displays is a possessive quality over custard creams. (Hopefully Thirteen Lives will do in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the biscuit what Avengers Assemble did in/with regard to’concerning’regarding shawarma.)###Around the mission to save the kids is the equally significant’essential’critical’vital’crucial’indispensable’imperative work of Thanet Natisri (Nophand Boonyai), a water engineer who takes matters into his own hands and sets with regards to’concerning’with respect to recruiting locals to divert millions of gallons of water away from the mountainside to stop the caves acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ting flooded further. It’s a noble endeavour, but not peculiar ly the stuff of memorable drama.###But stick with it and things do enhance’promote’polish up . Caves, rain and torchlight are always cinematic — there are also some fancy-dan graphics to tell us what chamber the kids/rescuers are in — and Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom finds haunting, textured imagery in stalactite tunnels. Howard is a past master at making you care with regards to’concerning’with respect to an outcome you already know — see Apollo 13 and Rush — and when the film moves into the business end, coinciding with Joel Edgerton turning up as a maverick pal of Stanton and Volanthen, Thirteen Lives delivers.###Howard understands that the juice here is in the details, and the way in which the team are extracted to safety is precisely etched and grapple ping. You acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure the sense that this is the reason why Howard wanted to do the movie and, like his itinerant cave-divers, it’s here that all his undergo and skills pay off.