At its heart, this is a whale-sized movie!

In the Heart of The Sea is a re-telling of the harrowing true-life incidents that inspired the character/book Moby Dick.

The movie, directed by Ron Howard who made the F1 racing epic ‘Rush,’ tells the story of a group of sailors aboard a whaling ship named Essex in the winter of 1820.

Set in a period before the advent of crude oil, the world’s energy needs are mostly met by whale oil.

A group of men, led by the ship’s 29-year-old captain George Pollard Jr (Benjamin Walker) and his brash first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth), head out to sea in search of whales to cull.

During the course of the hunt, a mammoth whale destroys their ship and they get stranded out at sea. Adrift on two lifeboats, thousands of miles away from land, the group slowly descends into chaos. And they will do anything to survive.

The gritty tale is filled with action packed sequences and makes great use of computer graphics. The hardship the sailors go through is truly horrific. Viewers should better have a strong stomach while watching this one.

Hemsworth packs in a solid performance and his ‘non-Thor’ avatar is a true revelation. You will be surprised at his physical transformation.

Verdict: Seven out of 10 stars. This is a whale of a movie. Ditch the beach and hit the cinemas for the sail of a lifetime.