Film Review: All is Lost

Director: J.C. Chandor

A 2013 survival film is the second feature film from new director J.C. Chandor whose first was the sublime Margin Call, which won The Rolling Picture Award for Best Picture in 2012 which I'm sure he was delighted about. Robert Redford was brought on board by Chandor after his first film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011, from there the film was shot at studios in Rosarito Beach in Mexico.

A un-named man (Robert Redford) wakes up to see his boat is leaking water after it collided with a shipping container that was floating in the Indian Ocean. He manages to force the container free by using a sea anchor and then driving the boat away before going to work on patching up the hole so it doesn't continue to leak water. As he tries to use the broken radio to communicate for assistance he realises a big tropical storm is coming his way and that his problems might just be beginning.

The storm prepares to batter the Virginia Jean

The film itself is almost a silent movie with Robert Redford the only soul onboard carrying the film himself so naturally there is little conversation with no-one to talk to. Its a hugely demanding role not just in the physical sense but to be able to carry an entire movie by yourself and very little script so it needed a veteran actor of Redford's experience. To have that confidence to be able to carry off this sort of film is imperative and Redford is certainly not short of that.

Redford's character is hit by one catastrophe after another reminiscent of the film The Perfect Storm but in a film like this you never get the threat of danger until the film act, they can hardly kill off the only character in the whole film after 30mins. This is the polar opposite of Titanic, a stripped down catastrophe inflicted to one lone man in a film that is surprisingly devoid of emotions. Chandor keeps his distance to survey his leading man from afar without seeing closeups of his face conveying his emotions which was a surprising twist. A bold but solid second film for Chandor leaves me intrigued to see how his next film A Most Violent Year will go.

2.5/4 Engaging but sparse aquatic drama