Review of The Water Diviner (2014) by Lezee — 13 Sep 2015

A father with a hope to find his missing sons.

A fictional narration with the backdrop of the World War I. Precisely the story begins after the end of the war, about a father who goes after look for his sons who were last seen on the battlefield of Gallipoli, Turkey. The rest is the mix of drama, war, romance, flashbacks, and whether his mission is accomplished or not is the climax that decide.

Frankly, I was a little disappointed. The story was not based on the real, but looked like one. The point is it was a wonderful and inspiring theme, but direction was not convincing along with bad editing. If you look at who's that, it was a direction debut for Russell Crowe, who played the main character in the film as well. Some of the historical facts were wrong, especially showing the Greeks in the bad light was the negativity of the film. Visually the films do not give the impression of the pre 1920s where the story set in. Instead, it looks more of the late 40s or the early 50s.

Since it was set after the war, most of the characters were in a guilt attitude. Can't say whole film was predictable, but the scenes were. The performances were the only things that tried to lift the movie, as well as the music and screenplay in some parts. This, book based movie should have been directed by any top director, not for the freshers to try-out their skills in direction field, because of the powerful stuffs like anti-war elements. One time watchable, but disappointment is ahead of you if you expect greatness from it. Anyway, it was Australia's top gross movie last year in Australia.

6.