Okay, I have a bone to pick with Hollywood. Why is it that characters named Bernie are always either bad guys or butlers?

I mean, it’s not like they don’t have the ability to be heroes. Just look at Bernie Webber, the main character of this flick starring Chris Pine about a heroic sea rescue of a tanker crew whose ship breaks in two during a hurricane off the Massachusetts coast in 1952.

It’s the night of a horrific winter storm and the Coast Guard gets a report of a tanker split in two a few miles off the coast. The commander of the unit sends a crew out to rescue the survivors.

A little later on, they get a report of a second tanker that’s also torn apart. The commander (Eric Bana) dispatches another crew headed by Webber to rescue that ship’s complement.

The complication is the bar off the coast. With high waves crashing over the reef, it’s doubtful that the tiny rescue craft will even be able to leave the bay in one piece. If they don’t hit the water at just the right angle or speed, the tiny boat could flip end over end effectively killing all four crew members. The mission is, for all intents, a suicide run.

Complicating matters is Webber’s new girlfriend who just asked Bernie to get married to her in April. It seems that Bernie couldn’t gather up enough courage of his own to ask her. In fact, that night, Bernie was supposed to ask his commanding officer for permission to marry (a formality) but he couldn’t gather up the nerve.

But on the high seas, that’s a different story. Bernie knows how to handle a boat and despite the odds, if a rescue is possible, he’ll find a way to do it.

Meanwhile, the crew of the scuttled tanker are doing everything they can just to stay alive. The tanks ballasting the surviving half are keeping her afloat, but not for long if someone doesn’t come up with a plan and fast.

One of the crew, Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck), comes up with a plan. It’s a risky one, but it just might buy the crew a few hours until they can be rescued.

The ship must locate a nearby shoal and attempt to run aground, keeping the ship above the waterline. Without a rudder, though, it makes steering the ship a nearly impossible task.

Chris Pine is making heroic rescue films into an art form. First, with “Unstoppable,” his valiant effort to halt a runaway train in Pennsylvania with Denzel Washington, made quite an impression on the big screen and later in home rentals as well.

These movies could almost make him a household name, if he weren’t already flirting with fame by playing the impetuous captain of the Enterprise in the “Star Trek” reboots.

Ben Foster is fun to watch as Webber’s first mate on the rescue boat. Knowing full well that this might be a one-way mission, he volunteers anyway and it’s his job to keep Bernie focused when his own resolve begins to waver.

Affleck’s role is a thankless one. His character is thrust into the forefront since he’s the only crewman with a viable survival plan, but a number of his fellow crewmates aren’t sure they trust him enough. Sybert knows, though, that attempting escape in the lifeboats is fruitless, which he proves with stunning clarity.

The film is not without its own melodramatic moments and not everyone survives. Some of the melodrama is quite foreseeable and they telegraph one death with the reliability of typical Hollywood predictability.

But that in no way lessens the enjoyment of the movie and the outcome, while predictable, is fun to watch. The film won’t make much on the big screen, but it will have a long life on the rental marker. It’s a solid movie with an excellent plot and fantastic acting.

As rescue movies go, though, this one is by the numbers and well worth a look. I give “The Finest Hours” four out of five stars.