"San Andreas"
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| A minor consequence of the shift along the eponymous fault line in "San Andreas" |
In “San Andreas,” we are introduced to a
Caltech seismologist named Lawrence Hayes (played by Paul Giamatti), who
informs a documentary director (Archie Panjabi) – for the audience’s benefit –
of a new method he and a colleague have developed, which predicts earthquakes
along known fault lines. And, he grimly pronounces into her camera, a cataclysm
is on its way to California
Enter Dwayne Johnson, who plays Ray, an Air Rescue pilot, whom we meet at the opening, in a
thrilling sequence where he tips his helicopter side to side, to fly into a
crevasse where he must save the distressing damsel whose car has tumbled down.
It’s a manoeuvre of great daring and jaw-dropping skill, as well as a
stratospheric decibel-count, which nicely sets the tone and volume level for
the next 100 minutes. Who would think, after witnessing Ray’s heroic deeds,
that he is the one in need of rescue? In the wake of the loss of their one
daughter, he and his wife, Emma (Carla Gugino), have become estranged, and he
rarely sees the surviving daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario). Divorce papers
are delivered to him, and he discovers that Emma is moving in with an
architect, Daniel (Ioan Gruffud).