After a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.
All is Lost is all the more compelling for the way it dares to put its faith in lean, pared-to-the-bone storytelling and a simple salute to the tenacity of the human spirit. One of this year’s pleasant surprises.
All of this might feel like little more than an audacious stunt if it wasn’t for the bold ending; it will surely divide opinion, but it establishes All Is Lost as a profoundly moving meditation on life and death.
All Is Lost is absorbing if you are in the mood for elemental cinema.
A triumph of pure cinema and wonderful visual storytelling from Chandor, who must now be considered the real deal, while Redford is sublime in what could well be the performance of his career.
With no 3D, no friends and no hope, Redford and Chandor show how survivalist instincts can stoke thrilling, thoughtful cinema. If Gravity grabbed you, hop aboard and hold tight.
Mesmerised by the water, less so by the man navigating its waves.
Directed by J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) it’s impeccably made but not tense or exciting enough. Redford’s resourceful character is too impassive and together for most of the running time.
J C Chandor’s brilliant film starring Robert Redford fulfills all the criteria of new mini-genre of survival stories.
What a strikingly bold and thoughtful film.
It’s too bad, then, that Chandor blows it with a disappointing ending that doesn’t do justice to the performance that Redford – face weather-beaten, eyes full of anxiety – gives for the duration of the movie.
Icy, intense and brilliantly unadorned.
Interview: JC Chandor
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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