How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 25 March 2015
This article is a review of THE WATER DIVINER. |
“I’ll find them, love. I’ll find them and I’ll bring them home to you,” Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe)
There is too little new being said about war in Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, which starts promisingly and then peters out. When a once A-list actor has been front and centre for a coterie of gifted filmmakers, intrigue is set high for what they might have gleaned. Crowe starred in Ridley Scott’s last great movie, GLADIATOR, was before Peter Weir on MASTER AND COMMANDER, comfortably holding his own against Al Pacino in Michael Mann’s THE INSIDER, and eviscerating the screen in Curtis Hanson’s L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. To compare is of course unfair, though unavoidable; especially as Weir tackled the First World War, from the Australian perspective, in GALLIPOLI.
There is too little new being said about war in Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, which starts promisingly and then peters out. When a once A-list actor has been front and centre for a coterie of gifted filmmakers, intrigue is set high for what they might have gleaned. Crowe starred in Ridley Scott’s last great movie, GLADIATOR, was before Peter Weir on MASTER AND COMMANDER, comfortably holding his own against Al Pacino in Michael Mann’s THE INSIDER, and eviscerating the screen in Curtis Hanson’s L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. To compare is of course unfair, though unavoidable; especially as Weir tackled the First World War, from the Australian perspective, in GALLIPOLI.
|
|
And Gallipoli, Turkey, 20th December 1915, is where we begin, as the ANZAC forces retreat and evacuate after seven months of bloody conflict – searing itself into the psyches of all the nations involved. THE WATER DIVINER, refreshingly devoid of jingoism, and stated to be inspired by true events, jumps four years to Joshua (Crowe) using divining rods to miraculously discover water in the unfriendly Australian wilderness.
“You can find water, but you can’t even find your own children,” Eliza (Jacqueline McKenzie) to her husband
Almost broken of mind under the weight of grief, wife Eliza seemingly unjustly admonishes Joshua for failing their three sons, who all died in the same place. Flashbacks, requiring more sophistication, as to their insertion into the narrative, reveal, among other things, a loving pater. The one striking scene of the film has patriarch rescue his children from an apocalyptic sandstorm.
Unable to cope, Eliza takes her own life, which catalyses our protagonist to travel across the world to bring back the bodies of his children to lay them with their mother. Father McIntyre (Damon Herriman), a Catholic priest, is reluctant to inter Eliza on consecrated ground due to the suspicion of suicide – a brief indictment of organised religion not taken further, other than the clergyman dipping his handkerchief in the font of holy water to apply to the back of his neck in a cooling gesture.
Roving camera attempts at style and verve are obvious for their unconfident flashiness, and make way for awful-looking slow motion. Crowe has not yet found his voice out of the gate; but then who does?
Istanbul, and Joshua faces bureaucracy and lack of empathy head on, as he attempts to acquire official permission, from the British forces, to visit the Dardanelles. Under the auspices of Lt-Col Cyril Hughes (Jai Courtney), the imperial Graves Unit is going through the site, working with the Ottoman authorities, amid unexploded ordinance, to find the bodies and names of the deceased. Of the 10,000 ANZAC troops half have been found. The audience is told that this is the first war where the rank and file soldiers were not just dumped in a mass grave with horses and mules. (Class treatment is not on the agenda though.)
Given personality and dignity, Major Hassan (Yilmaz Erdogan) and Sergeant Jemal (Cem Yilmaz) end up assisting Joshua. Seventy thousand Turks also died in that battle. Rapprochement and forgiveness are welcome themes. Camaraderie amongst former enemies in a sea of hatred has a humanism all too absent from the genre. Weakening proceedings though, is the anaemic subplot concerning Ayeshe (Olga Kurylenko) and her son who wait the return of her soldier husband. Artless conversations and hints at chemistry with Joshua hamper a movie already seldom hitting the high notes.
Using these Amazon affiliated links help us keep Filmaluation free for all film and arts lovers.
Amazon UK
Amazon USA