Big Picture Big Sound

Shaky Ground

Brad Peyton's disaster porn "San Andreas" provides an eyeful of "The Big One" -
California's overdue massive earthquake (and Dwayne Johnson).

Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter pilot Ray Gaines (Dwayne Johnson) is a war veteran but is less successful on the home front. His soon-to-be-ex-wife Emma (Carla Gugino) and daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) are moving in with Emma's boyfriend Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd). Daniel is no physical match for Ray, but he's a real estate developer with a huge wallet, and he happens to be erecting the biggest building in San Francisco. But Ray has other problems when an earthquake in Nevada destroys the Hoover Dam, and gives him a search-and-rescue job to do.

Which he promptly doesn't do, despite earlier telling a reporter (Archie Panjabi): "I go where they tell me to go." Instead, he flies to Los Angeles (to rescue his wife) and San Francisco (to rescue his daughter), cities that are hosting their own earthquakes. Ray seems virtually alone as he navigates on land, sea, and air through urban ruins, giving the movie a video-game feel. Aside from Ray, there is hardly a hint of any Federal, State, or local response to the disaster (thanks, Obama).

The movie's other, less assuming hero is Caltech seismology professor Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) whose team has developed a method of predicting earthquakes (with unfortunately very little warning time). Blake is arguably a hero as well, though her resourcefulness and leadership is undermined by her repeated need to be rescued and the director's need to remove layers of her clothes.

The loss of innocent human life can only be imagined, because it is largely implied instead of shown. It is the special effects that demand our attention, not the sacrificial citizens of California, who are effectively background for the buildings. We care about half a dozen people, including British engineer Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and his rascally little brother Ollie (Art Parkinson), who are fortunate enough to befriend Blake and spare themselves an anonymous pixilated death.

The scale of destruction in "San Andreas" is so large that it stops mattering, and is ultimately dwarfed by Ray's domestic drama. In fact, the further the tectonic plates are pulled apart, the closer Ray's family is pushed together. So don't feel bad rooting for the earthquake. It's not your fault.