‘The Finest Hours’ flounders in spots

“The Finest Hours,” based on the true story of the valiant 1952 Coast Guard rescue of a sinking oil tanker off the coast of Massachusetts, splits in two much like the wounded vessel at its heart.

There’s the film that’s set on the sea and much of that is pretty terrific, even if it brings to mind “A Perfect Storm.” And then there’s film set on land, and that one runs aground.

Chris Pine is Bernie Webber, a young Coast Guardsman whose daily routine is upended when he’s tasked with heading up a team to save the 30-plus crew from the Pendleton, a wreck drifting in the storm-tossed waters during a vicious winter nor’easter,

Webber and his equally young co-horts — Richard (Ben Foster), Andy (Kyle Gallner, “American Sniper”) and Ervin (John Magaro, “The Big Short”) — are the JV squad as the more seasoned sailors have already left to help another ship in distress. But their commanding officer (Eric Bana) has no choice but to send them out.

Meanwhile, aboard the Pendleton, the captain and much of the crew have been killed and now it’s up to reclusive but knowledgeable chief engineer Ray Sybert (a good Casey Affleck) to take command of what’s left and try to keep everyone alive until help arrives.

These scenes provide the film with its most suspenseful and rewarding moments and seem to be the ones where director Craig Gillespie (“Million Dollar Arm,” “Lars and the Real Girl”) shows the most inspiration.

Yet those stories are interrupted to go back to town where Webber’s headstrong fiancée Miriam (Holliday Grainger, “The Borgias”) waits anxiously for him to return. This is where “The Finest Hours” bogs down as the romantic element is the film’s weakest.