saw All Is Lost, a nearly silent and literally one-man movie about Robert Redford on a sailboat with a gaping hole in its side and its a pretty engrossing, ambitious and well-executed example of cinematic minimalism. Heres a film that has no clear character development or background (its hinted at, though), hardly any dialogue, only one character, and, even more than Gravity was, it really is, on the surface, as simple a story of survival as it seems, and yet, the film holds our attention and intrigue better than some films made in the more traditional style. Credit there has to go to Robert Redford, whose mixture of world-weary appearance and body language, facial expressions and guttural utterances says more and says it better than words would, and to director J.C. Chandor, who expertly paces and stages Redfords oceanic ordeal and creates a transporting atmosphere through the subtle attention to maritime detail and manipulation of sound that, hell say right now is the best use of audio of any movie hes seen or will see this year (and it alone makes this worth seeing in a theater). Having said all that, the film falls short of perfection due to too many false endings, which makes the third act too repetitive and plodding (even given the films deliberate pacing), but still, this movies well worth seeing, especially if youre up for another (and a particularly stylistically unique) 2013 cinematic survival tale after Captain Phillips, 12 Years A Slave and Gravity; 3 1/2 stars.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 00:28:44 +0000
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