Robert Redford

J.C. Chandor

106 mins.
Action, Adventure, Drama
October 25, 2013

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language. (MPAA)

“All is Lost” gives filmgoers, from the comfort of their local movie theaters, the opportunity to confront who they are when no one’s looking: Could you spend time alone, for days on end, and be fine with that? What would drive you to do that? I don’t know that many would interpret this film in a personal way, but I do. I don’t think of this as just a story about one man lost at sea. It also relates to us as individuals and our individual responses to the trials of life.

Robert Redford plays a man who’s sailing alone when he encounters a problem: He awakens to find that his boat has been damaged by a metal shipping container that was floating in its path. He immediately begins to solve the problem: detaching the container from his boat, getting rid of seawater in his boat, trying to fix electrical equipment so that he may send an SOS, etc. While he can’t fix everything, he seems to know what he’s doing or how to figure some things out by reading manuals on the boat. Things don’t go well for him afterward.

We don’t know much more about him; except that at the beginning of the film, before we’re shown the initial problem, he narrates a letter to his loved ones as an apology for his past behavior. (He’s shown putting this letter in a glass bottle later in the film.) Afterward, the film flashes back eight days to that problem.

There’s very little talking in this film; there’s no dialogue, to be specific. So, the sound editing and mixing are essential to this film’s success. Those sounds are specific and clear. Also, the camera doesn’t linger too long in one spot. It’s focused primarily on Redford and, at times, the boat, the ocean, and the sky. The blend of sound and camera movements keep this film from becoming boring.

As for Redford, his acting’s all about the physical, which actually requires tremendous mental focus. It looks like he does everything himself without a stunt double; this looks like grueling work. He does a great job here; many may not be able to appreciate just how hard it is to be the only character in a film and not have much to say. The one thing that stands out about this character is that he doesn’t complain much. While he’s clearly frustrated, at times, he, nevertheless, just gets on with it. I think that we all wish that we could be as purposeful in the face of a crisis. But, by the end of the film, this man must face the facts. Perhaps this film pertains to our inevitable meeting with death. But who decides when it’s our time to go?

In “All is Lost,” writer-director J.C. Chandor accomplishes what he set out to accomplish. This film is as good as this kind of film could possibly be, which means that it’s just good.

Verdict: Good

About: (Source: allislost)

Academy Award® winner Robert Redford stars in All Is Lost, an open-water thriller about one man’s battle for survival against the elements after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Written and directed by Academy Award nominee J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) with a musical score by Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), the film is a gripping, visceral and powerfully moving tribute to ingenuity and resilience.

Deep into a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, an unnamed man (Redford) wakes to find his 39-foot yacht taking on water after a collision with a shipping container left floating on the high seas. With his navigation equipment and radio disabled, the man sails unknowingly into the path of a violent storm. Despite his success in patching the breached hull, his mariner’s intuition, and a strength that belies his age, the man barely survives the tempest.

Using only a sextant and nautical maps to chart his progress, he is forced to rely on ocean currents to carry him into a shipping lane in hopes of hailing a passing vessel. But with the sun unrelenting, sharks circling and his meager supplies dwindling, the ever-resourceful sailor soon finds himself staring his mortality in the face.