SummaryIn 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) goes in search of his three missing sons, last known to have fought against the Turks in the bloody Battle of Gallipoli. Arriving in Istanbul, he is thrust into a vastly different world, where he encounters others who have suffered their own losses in the conflict: Ayshe (Olga Kury...
SummaryIn 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) goes in search of his three missing sons, last known to have fought against the Turks in the bloody Battle of Gallipoli. Arriving in Istanbul, he is thrust into a vastly different world, where he encounters others who have suffered their own losses in the conflict: Ayshe (Olga Kury...
The story takes some unexpected turns, which Crowe handles well, without overplaying them. Overall, The Water Diviner is a solid effort, a good, old-fashioned movie when it's not delving into soap opera.
Russell esta en su mejor momento. A pesar de las malas criticas le sienta la llenura. Es un actor excepcional y estar mas trozudo le sienta bien para ciertos papeles. Recomendada totalmente! supera sus ultimas producciones!
Crowe is effectively restrained in his acting, but in his debut as a director, he overdoes the manipulative music and the pretty images from cinematographer Andrew Lesnie.
Crowe's feature directorial debut, The Water Diviner, stems from an honest impulse to dramatize ordinary people who honor their dead. Yet the results are narratively dishonest and emotionally a little cheap.
In straining for the profound, the film ultimately loses its way in a veritable no-man's land of ill-conceived stylistic choices and narrative switchbacks.
I have to assume that Russell Crowe and Warner Bros. did not deliberately set out to insult and anger the Armenian diaspora and its friends around the world, or to participate in covering up a monumental 20th-century crime that shaped the world we live in and remains swathed in too much historical shadow. They disgraced themselves by making this movie the way they did, and then redoubled the disgrace by releasing it this week.
This is a stellar gem of a film. Deeply moving and just brimming with heart and soul, The Water Diviner is a film about gut-wrenching loss, perseverance, hope and fractured, imperfect redemption. Its themes are universal; its cinematography is striking; its score is both subtle and breathtaking; and its lead performances are poignant and spot-on. Whatever may be said about the accuracy and/or omission of certain details and events, the story at its heart is about a quest driven by the purest and most powerful form of love. It also serves as a cautionary commentary about the horrors and futility of war; and an uplifting testament to the fire and resilience of the human spirit. Exquisitely stirring and thought-provoking from beginning to end.
The story has an amazing soul, a mesmerizing spiritual power, and a refreshing perspective on History. As a scholar of History, I'd say it treats a noble Turkish nation victim of absolutely unprovoked aggression from all sides during World War I with long-overdue justice after a 100 years, while retaining the dignity of ANZAC soldiers who fought with great bravery and loyalty for a dubious British cause.
"The Water Diviner" is not only a cinematographic masterpiece of rare beauty. It is a powerful statement of tolerance, a testimony of endless hope and love
The true story of an Australian man who travels to Galipolli to find the bodies of his three sons who he has told died in the war is beautifully filmed by first time director Crowe. A moving first third and emotionally affecting last third are unfortunately separated by a mid section that grinds the whole film to a halt as a completely surperflous love story is shoe horned in to the narrative. Crowe has obviously learnt a lot from the great directors he has worked with in the past, and the scope and ambition of his debut bodes well for future efforts
Beautiful, dramatic and visually impressive, The Water Diviner is on the most part, an engaging watch. Unfortunately the exploration of unimportant narrative arcs and a sense of unrealism serve to hold the film back. The film has a powerful premise, and at times, it was able to live up to it's undoubted potential. Positively speaking, the use of native actors was a wonderful touch, an aspect often ignored by many big blockbusters nowadays. The soundtrack helped to set the tone and setting, whilst several scenes in the form of flashbacks were truly terrifying and heart-wrenching. However, the film was somewhat unrealistic and in several ways unbelievable. Russell Crowe's unexplained psychic ability to find the remains of his son serves as one of many examples. Although a lot of the film did not make sense, such scenes served to further develop Russell Crowe's character and the storyline in some way. Given this, The Water Diviner serves for a predominantly good movie going experience.
In June of 2015 one of my favourite HBO shows of all time will make its debut on the silver screen. While Entourage may not be the greatest television show ever created, it sure does succeed in allowing its main demographic to fantasize about fame and fortune. It is true that the Entourage film has very little to almost zero relevance to The Water Diviner, but its subject matter (a very eager Hollywood star, in this case, the fictional Vincent Chase making his directorial film debut) does. Now you may be asking, what is the point here?
What many won’t know is that The Water Diviner marks the directorial debut of famed New Zealand born, Australian loving actor Russell Crowe. Sharing in his immense adoration for the land down under with fellow famed Hollywood actors Hugh Jackman and Hugo Weaving, Crowe directs this film centred around the Gallipoli Campaign, also known as The Battle of Gallipoli, and Australian farmer/water diviner, Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe).
Years after the initial battles, Joshua and his wife Eliza (Jacqueline McKenzie) have done the best they can grieving with the reality of losing all three sons to the war. Essentially, The Water Diviner becomes a great cinematic tale about hope, survival, and determination, soaked with an immense amount of inexperience by its very trying but lacking director.
Hope is a big theme within the film, and going back to the analogy mentioned in the first paragraph, the same could be said for many upcoming actors turned directors. While the trend of acting-to-directing is nothing new (Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, and of course, Ben Affleck), it is something that many actors try, gaining knowledge and great aspiration from their confident directing leaders, but fail miserably. Just ask Ryan Gosling and his 2014 Cannes flop Lost River.
While The Water Diviner may be considered anything but a flop, the film does seem quite familiar very quickly. Taking cues from very popular and hailed contemporary war dramas in the last few decades, Saving Private Ryan and Flags of Our Fathers most notably, Crowe’s directorial debut is a beautifully shot, but poorly guided historical picture.
High handed melodrama, non-conspicuous zooms during very pivotal narrative scenes and monologues, as well as the oh-so painful use of unnecessary slow-motion, The Water Diviner is ever so slightly taken away from a compelling story of patriarch and redemption. Against all odds Joshua makes his way to Gallipoli, a land labelled as a stretch of Earth saturated with “blood and ghosts”, where he is greeted by Major Hasan (Yilmaz Erdogan), a military official who is tasked with helping Lt./Col Cyril Hughes (Jai Courtney in his second straight historical war epic following Unbroken) adequately bury fellow countrymen. While most of the film is driven by blind and unexplainable intuition, Joshua finds two of his sons, Henry and Edward Connor (Ben O’Toole and James Fraser), who remain together. Not knowing the whereabouts of the remains of his eldestArthur (Ryan Corr), who had been tasked with guarding his two youngest brothers, Joshua never loses faith in the chance of seeing his first-born.
While much of the film narrative is driven by prospect, Major Hasan informs Joshua that he remembers his son in a chance encounter and gives him hope that he may still be alive, leading Joshua to Istanbul where divinely, he finds himself in the care of a recently widowed Ayshe’s (Olga Kurylenko) hotel. It is there that Joshua slowly sheds his Commonwealth patriotism of Queen and Country beginning to open his eyes to the customs and lifestyle of the Turkish people, including that of Ayshe and her son Orhan (Dylan Georgides).
While romance never plays a strong influence on the film between Joshua and Ayshe, some of the best scenes are undoubtedly between Crowe and Kurylenko as well as Crowe and Turkish acting gem Erdogan. Many won’t be astonished by Crowe’s direction but he can rest assured, after the atrocities that were Noah, Winter’s Tale and Broken City, that his acting is in top form in The Water Diviner, proving scene and scene again that his talents as an actor are far from finished. Luckily, the casting and acting of the film is undoubtedly its strong point, including former Bond girl Kurylenko who is almost unrecognizable as Ayshe.
Russell Crowe may not be the next Orson Welles, Rob Reiner, or Kenneth Branagh – men whose directorial debuts and first feature films Citizen Kane, This is Spinal Tap! and Henry V respectfully established their talents behind the lens as well as in front of the camera – but there is definitely hope for a very talented and ambitious man who is willing to shed light to some very obscure historical events. Crowe will surely be given a slew of elements in the fight to get his film seen and appreciated. While I won’t be one to truly drown The Water Diviner, here’s hoping that Crowe’s first feature will have greater hope of keeping afloat than sinking quickly.