Tom Holland's First Movie Gave Us His Best Performance 4 Years Before Spider-Man

13 years ago, I received an invite to a long-lead screening for a new J.A. Bayona movie. I had no idea what it was about, and preferred to keep it that way. As I entered the screening room, I refused the one-sheet synopsis from the publicist and parked myself in a seat as far away as possible from the other attendees (of which there were mercifully few). All I needed to know was that this was the sophomore effort from the enormously talented filmmaker who gave us the expertly crafted chiller "The Orphanage," and that it had inexplicably taken him five years to follow it up. Needless to say, I had high expectations.

"The Impossible" documents the true story of Maria Belón, who, with her family, survived the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed over 220,000 people. It was not at all what I expected from Bayona, but it did prove with a harrowing vengeance that this man is an A-list director equipped with astonishing technical skills. The oceanic fury unleashed by the 9.2 earthquake is captured with horrific authenticity that leaves you gasping for breath. The entire sequence rattled me to such a trembling degree that I almost had to bolt the theater. But Bayona is no Irwin Allen or Roland Emmerich; he's not hurtling disaster at you as a means of glad-that's-not-me exhilaration. Before literally flooding our senses, he spent an economical amount of time establishing his characters. In a lot of movies, these scenes might've been insufficient to ground us in the lives of this family, but Bayona and his casting team of Shaheen Baig, Eva Leira, Howard Meltzer, and Yolanda Serrano hit the bullseye with every choice. Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor as the parents, Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast as the younger sons, and the breakthrough performer of the film, Tom Holland, as the older brother.

I had no sense of Holland before I saw "The Impossible," but walking out of that screening, I knew I'd seen one of the best child performances of all time.

When we meet Holland's Lucas, he's just a 12-year-old boy without a care in the world. He's on Christmas vacation with his parents and siblings in a lovely Khao Lak, Thailand, and is having a ball until death rushes into his life. Lucas is able to cling to his mother, but she is critically injured and desperately needs medical care. As his mother is prepped for surgery, she urges him to locate the rest of the family. In that moment, Lucas must become a man.

Holland's Lucas is smart and capable, but there's so much about the world, particularly in a foreign country, that he doesn't understand. His journey is gripping, and we see through Holland's every expression and gesture that he's not sure he has the stuff to carry through his impossible task. So much is asked of Holland. It reminds me of Jodie Foster in "Taxi Driver" and, in my opinion, the child acting gold standard of Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit." He's since had a wildly successful career (he's Spider-Man for chrissakes), but I'm still waiting for that next knockout performance, which I know he's got percolating in his soul. Perhaps that part will be Telemachus in Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey." While we're waiting for that epic, I highly recommend that you check out "The Impossible" if you've never seen it. It's a pulverizing, but ultimately hopeful experience.