All is Lost
This has been a fantastic fall as far as superior and unique films is concerned. I’ve been waiting to see this since I first heard about it over the summer and it really didn’t let me down. I was fortunate enough to see it with a audience that for the most part was courteous as there is barely any dialogue in the entire film and really leans of the sound editing to carry the mood. The story was simple yet very effective at keeping the tense situation realistic and engrossing. I haven’t seen Margin Call yet but I know that it received huge praise for its writing and I’d like to check it out after seeing this. J.C. Chandor crafted a beautiful script with deep meaning to go along with a great survival story. It’s not an easy thing to do.
Robert Redford carries this film. He has to. He’s the only person in it. He barely speaks but has managed to turn in a career performance and arguably the best this year. I still need to see Captain Phillips a second time so I can focus more of Tom Hank’s performance but I was just floored by Redford’s ability at his age to carry a film still. It helps that he’s playing a man who is a total badass. I learned a lot about being at sea from this film and even though the guy could have used a GPS tracker, it was a realistic visualization of what being stranded at sea can be like. I also really appreciated the ending. Some people don’t like ambiguous endings but I love trying to fill in the blanks and come up with my own theories on what happened.
All is Lost is a fantastic film and anchored (yeah, puns happen okay?) by a monumental performance by Robert Redford.
4.5/5