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| Copyright: FilmNation Entertainment |
All Is Lost
is a terrific film. It’s original and different, a kind of film that tries to
form its own world and not just imitate the real one.
The director
J. C. Chandor did something very bold when he decided to venture into the realm
of non-verbal storytelling. This film has no dialogue and only a brief
monologue at the beginning. The film’s only character, an elderly sailor on a
private yacht, utters a handful of words from the beginning to the end: a short
and unanswered SOS call and a muttered curse here and there. He is nameless,
and doesn’t have any background story that fills in the audience about his life
or the decisions that brought him to the middle of the Indian Ocean.
In one
moment, his boat is damaged and the cabin, along with his communications
equipment, flooded. After the incident, his struggle to stay alive begins in its
full glory and desperation.
Robert
Redford left me, quite adequately, completely speechless. His interpretation of
a man lost at sea is astounding. He seems calm and composed, and never gets out
of ideas. Even when he is on the edge of losing it, he manages to stay alive,
even if that means only a couple of hours. Enormous waves pick up and drop his
boat like a toy, but he never gets disconnected from his surroundings, and
thus, from his invisible safety line to life. Redford brings this unnamed,
determined man to the screen very naturally, and soon become him completely.
When I saw the film, I didn’t remember any other character he played in his
long career. He was just that man in the sailboat.
I’m not sure
in what condition has Chandor made All Is Lost, but a lot of scenes are
brilliantly filmed. The space where the movie takes place is incredibly
confined (a small sailboat and an even smaller inflatable life raft), but the
director manages to literally turn all of that upside down on several
occasions, when the waves briefly sink or flip the boat. His underwater shots,
where colors blend and light changes, also add to the stunning beauty of the
film.
But even in
spite of the great actor and a very creative director, a man named Alex Ebert
is the person who for me wrapped and tied All Is Lost in one of the finest
movies I recently saw. Ebert made the soundtrack for the film, and his tunes
are incredibly in sync with the unfolding story. The soundtrack covers the
journey of the lost sailor, and follows his ordeal, but always underlines his
solitude.
In a world
full of words, All Is Lost brings to its audience an ocean of beautiful
pictures and sounds that represent raw human emotions. As I said, it’s a
terrific film.
