All Is Lost

All Is Lost stars Robert Redford as a nameless man who is forced into survival mode while sailing alone across the ocean. In terms of pure plot, that's pretty much it. Despite its simplicity though, All Is Lost proves to be an intense and satisfying piece of work featuring a great performance by Redford.

The film opens with a narration by Redford, one of the films only pieces of dialogue, and he's presumably saying his final goodbye before dying. The narration implies great regret, about what though we never find out. We never even know Redford's characters name, in the credits he's simply listed as 'Our Man'. Director J.C. Chandor specifically leaves out any kind of back story, instead focusing on Our Man's fight for survival and letting the audience fill in the blanks with whatever clues he leaves.

It's interesting to compare All Is Lost with Gravity, both are extremely simple survival tales on the surface, where one takes place in space and the other on the ocean.  Of course, technically speaking, neither are simple but the executions of both make it seem that way. I've heard some rumbling that a lot of people thought Sandra Bullocks back story in Gravity felt a little forced and unnecessary, as many felt that being stranded in space was reason enough to get back to earth. I personally didn't mind it, but I liked seeing All Is Lost go the other route.

From beginning to end, Our Man remains calm and reacts realistically to every situation handed to him, revealing only once any ounce of frustration by dropping a much deserved "FUCK!" when the situation absolutely calls for it.

The few moments of action in the film are tense and palpable, while also feeling small and claustrophobic. All of the worst moments are filmed either inside the boats' cabin or inside the life raft. Even more impressive is the fact that it appears that Redford did as many of the stunts as possible. Not bad for 78 years old.

The real magic of his performance though is in the details. Like his opening narration, it seems that Our Man is filled with some great regret. It's not exactly there in every moment, but as things seem to get worse with every passing moment, it seems clear that he wishes he had said or done more. It's a beauty of a performance that I wish had gotten just a little more attention than it did last year.

Not the same roller coaster ride that Gravity delivers, All Is Lost instead goes smaller in both scale and amount of actors and proves to be just as tense and satisfying, albeit in much different ways. It doesn't hurt that Redford proves once more why he is such a legend in the medium. In short, see All Is Lost, see it now.