Review: ‘All is Lost’

Between this film and Gravity, perhaps there’s something emerging in Hollywood films. I call it “keyhole” cinema: a glimpse, seemingly stolen, into a dramatic moment or period in our characters’ lives. There’s no build, no three-act dramatic construction, no traditional denouement. There’s limited (if any) back story. The aim of the protagonists is simple: survival. All else must wait.

Robert Redford is Our Man, a loner it seems, running from something, someone, or himself. “All is Lost” he declares in the opening monologue – resigned to his face, he expresses his remorse for the world and the people he’s lost.

Abruptly we’re taken eight days into his past: it’s night. Our Man is in the Indian Ocean, alone. An angry screech of metal jolts him awake – his boat has drifted into an errant shipping container. The water pouring through the gash in the boat’s side would cause most of us to gasp in shock and lunge for the life raft. But not Our Man. He’s an experienced seaman, he doesn’t panic, he applies his knowledge. Celebrating his victory over nature with a hot meal and whiskey, we feel his satisfaction. But it is short-lived: once more he’s fighting for his life against the elements.

This is an absorbing, and at times gripping, adventure. The excellent close camerawork and sound design conspire to draw us inexorably into the action until we are right there with the character, experiencing everything he does. It isn’t just a technical accomplishment though. Redford gives a subtle, human and affecting performance. He’s all the more impressive given there’s only about 40 words in this, including the opening monologue and one guttural, anguished expletive later on. But it doesn’t matter – all we need to know is written into Redford’s weather-beaten face. In it we sense his anger and elation, fear and relief, reflection and regret.

I mentioned Gravity before. These “keyhole” films share another – and in the case of All is Lost, defining – quality: intimacy. We are right with our character as he duels with the only other presence in this film, the force of nature. And with himself. To me this demonstrates the power of cinema, perhaps more than any other form of audio-visual art, to bring the audience into the action and to share, intimately, the feelings of the characters with us.

And that’s the trick. Our Man is ourselves. This is why All is Lost succeeds, and why it will remain in the memory long after the screen turns black.

8.5/10

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