Review of All Is Lost (2013) by Prodigy2013 — 29 Dec 2013

Taking some bold notes from Hemmingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, JC Chandor tells a story of a lone sailor’s strife to survive after being stranded at sea due to a series of worsening events.

With little to no dialogue, ‘All is Lost’ is filled with subtext and relies on Robert Redford tremendous talents to hold the screen alone. Redford’s unnamed character (titled ‘Our Man’ in the credits), is an ambiguous figure with literally no back-story; but that made him all the more intriguing.

There was no scenery chewing in the performance, just plain stoicism as his character steers peril in the eye… all truly felt lost. Chandor is no stranger to the dynamics of the 2008 financial crisis, and it’s very possible that some of these issues are layered between the fine lines of this story.

With an abandoned shipping container being the initial cause of Our Man’s high seas accident, one could relate that to the irresponsibility of big corporations and the negative effects it has on the people.

However, as you would expect from this metaphorical movie; it’s all up to each viewer’s interpretation. I applaud the rigorous efforts placed in producing this film, but for some reason I thought it was a tough film to fully connect to.

It may be due to its stark minimalism or maybe the subtle emotional payoff. In any case, it was one of the year’s most ambitious movies, and I encourage anybody up for a challenge to give it a try.