Review of All Is Lost (2013) by Wesley W — 17 Mar 2015

"All is Lost" was a lot like "Gravity", only with less human emotion, but a lot more heart. I really wanted to root for our hero here, in "Gravity" I just sat back and enjoyed the visual effects. I really didn't care if Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) died or lived, we had no reason to care for her. Well, if you've seen "All is Lost" you're probably trying to tell me the same thing with this movie. While it's true, there's no talking besides a line in the beginning, and one or two words towards the end. I still am intrigued by the drive in this man, it's something that Stone (Bullock) didn't have.

In the beginning, we're just introduced to Redford's character with basically no background knowledge. This is actually a great idea for a movie like this. I was wondering of all the possibilities, he's older, he shows little emotion, but he's in the middle of the ocean, alone. Is he mourning a loss, or maybe just absolutely loves doing this?

A collision occurs with some cargo and Redford's boat. You can tell he's experienced, he quickly fixes the problem and moves on. When a storm hits and things get worse, you can see the helplessness in his eyes, but there's no fear. It's a very interesting movie to watch, I was really curious to see what precaution Redford would take next, or what he'd be forced to do to survive. I wanted him to live, and because of the risk this movie takes with using very very little dialogue, I wasn't sure if he would or not.

There's a lot of movies with lone survivors, but you can normally tell if they'll survive or not. Here, I really didn't know if our hero would live. I'm not going to reveal what happens, but the ending is terrific. Ultimately, "All is Lost" is an unforgettable journey. The fact that it has very little dialogue doesn't affect it in the slightest.