No. 15 (2018) The Mercy February 15th.

Film No. 15 (2018) February 15th.  6.30 PM  LUNA Paradiso, Northbridge

"Alone on a boat for 9 months, you're either drunk or mad!" (Friend Ian sums up his impressions of Donald's aim to sail around the globe).

The mystery surrounding Donald Crowhurst's disappearance on the Atlantic while endeavoring to sail single-handedly around the world in 1968/69 is re-told in the steady hands of Firth and Weisz. This version gives us a chance to get inside the head of Crowhurst based on his logs and diaries which were found completely intact on the abandoned vessel in 1969 in the southern Atlantic. Did this seemingly sane inventor lose all sense of reality on the high seas?, did he simply fall overboard? or was his pride for family and face so strong he found it impossible to return home? The Mercy is a slightly uneven take on a man who dominated headlines, world wide, for eight months in the late sixties. It works and the gentle beauty Weisz gives Clare Crowhurst leaves one wondering how this devoted wife coped while protecting herself and her children from the weight of rumour and innuendo as time passed. 8GUMS.