Review:
All Is Lost is
an involving character drama that sadly is overly tedious. The film is about a
man sailing alone in the Indian Ocean. One morning he awakes to find that his
boat has careened into a floating crate (that must have fallen on a cargo ship)
puncturing his hull. Alone at sea in a crippled boat, the man must do all he
can just to survive.
Writer-director J.C. Chandor
sets up his whole narrative to create the feeling of isolation. He wants the
audience to feel like they are experiencing all the trials and tribulations
that the man faces during the course of the narrative. And to this end he
succeeds. The film is drenched with a feeling of dread – a foreboding feeling
that the man will die alone, emotionally and physically broken at sea. Thus,
the audience takes on a sizable investment in the man – in his potential
survival, a fate that the audience almost wills to happen with their hopeful
anticipation.
Chandor also never leaves the
man. The camera is with him, close up or from his perspective, throughout. It
is almost too much really. The audience seems to not have a break from his
gradual downfall. It is very draining. But what is likely the film’s bigger
issue is Chandor’s decision to keep the man mostly silent.
The man is alone and thus does
not speak during the film, save for a voice-over introduction, a call for help,
and frustration driven yell of an expletive. Logically, it makes sense that the
man would not speak because there is no one to talk to, but the result of this
choice is that the film just feels slow and overly long – when the narrative is
otherwise paced rather well. The audience needs more human interaction. Yes,
the man (though a strong performance) does convey his emotions silently through
his eyes, face, and body language, but the audience needs more. Plus, it only
seems natural that he would talk to himself, especially in moments of
frustration (which there are many) and anger, or if only for company –being
completely alone and isolated. This seems like a small hiccup, but it
drastically affects the whole film, especially from a pacing and emotional
standpoint. Again, the silence becomes a bit overwhelming and ultimately
tedious for the viewer. As engaging a character drama as the film might be (and
to some extent is) the viewer is completely pulled out of the narrative simply
by being worn down without moments of levity to break the downward spiraling of
events (something that could have easily have been provided through the man
talking to himself – the recent film Gravity
is a good example; the main character is on her own for much of the narrative,
but through her own self-oriented dialog the audience stays connected). Chandor
might have also tried to more efficiently tell the narrative, having committed
to all the silence as to address the pacing issue that arises.
Another issue that presents
itself comes in the film’s conclusion. It loses all its meaning, everything the
man goes through, and any emotional impact when a Hollywood happy ending is
tacked on. It seems that in today’s films narratives are not allowed to be
tragedies or filmmakers do not have the gall anymore to do it. They buy into
the idea that all we really want is for things to end up okay in the end. That
is not real life, and sure films are primarily made as entertainment and thus
do not fully ascribe to the rules of real life, but sometimes a narrative would
benefit more or be more interesting or be more powerful as a tragedy (a recent
example is Ridley Scott’s The
Counselor; it ends in tragedy and compelling gets its message across). In
this case, All Is Lost would have been much more poignant as a tragedy. As it
is, it feels emotionally neutered.
All Is Lost is on one hand a brilliant film,
built on a great mood of despair and the strong performance of a man fighting
against all odds, in the face of death, to survive. And yet, it has a few grave
flaws that suck the emotion out of it leaving it feeling dull.
Technical,
aesthetic & acting achievements: J.C. Chandor through his first two
features has shown a knack for garnering strong performances from his actors,
which is a great starting point for any film. However, both Margin Call
and All Is Lost drag a bit too much pacing wise and lack efficient scene-writing,
killing all their momentum. For his next feature, Chandor will hopefully
structure his narrative (A Most Violent
Year) with a bit more vigor, because he does have talent and a lot of
potential.
All Is Lost works in a sense like
a silent film and thus there is an extra burden on the film’s score to convey
emotion and set the tone. Alex Ebert’s
work does this quite well. Working with the good lead performance, it creates
an overall moving emotional experience. Frank DeMarco’s
photography is also a strong component of the film for the most part. Although,
there are moments in which it almost looks surreal, if not fake, which does
take the audience out of the narrative momentarily due to the film’s otherwise commitment
to realism. Peter
Zuccarini’s underwater photography, however, is wonderful, and my favorite
aspect of the film. John Goldsmith
does not really have much to do production design wise as there are only two small
areas the man interacts with: his boat and life raft, but Goldsmith does a good
job expressing character through how the boat is organized and what the man
keeps in it.
Robert Redford
is the sole actor in the whole film. It is a one-man show. This puts a lot on
Redford as he must carry the film and connect with the audience without any
help. He is very good, but is slightly undermined by the awkwardness of his
silence. In a way, it seems to only isolate him from the audience, when the
film should actively be working to strike a connection with each viewer.
Summary
& score: All Is Lost is very good at first, but as the film’s
narrative progresses it becomes more and more tiresome, emotionally disconnecting
with the audience. 6/10
