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...
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