Oh my gosh there is way to many story lines going on in this movie. There's a sweeping adventure/romance. There's a brutal (like "R" rated brutal) war story, and there's a subtle mystical element to it all. That's a lot to do in one movie, and The Water Diviner unfortunately comes nowhere near to sticking the landing. It does however accomplish the task of at least staying together long enough to be engaging throughout all of it's runtime. The reason for this becomes immediately apparent as the flaws in the films screenplay start to show early on. The whole thing seems to actually get more solid later on as you start to find out more about the characters, but jeez near the beginning it all just seems sloppy. The film would have lost me if not for one reason. That reason is Russell Crowe. No, not his performance (that's not bad it's just very... Russell Crowe you've seen him play this before), but his direction. The film has a very Ridley Scott feel to it, and I have a feeling that is because Scott and Crowe have worked together a lot. But it's really beautiful direction, and I can't wait to see what his next project will be like. Crowe's very good at creating an epic scale when he needs to, and the very good cinematography helps. It's really inspired, and exhilarating work. But again there's too much going on, and the entire thing is really sloppy. No matter how much prowess Crowe brings to both his part, and direction there's nothing you can do for a flawed screenplay. The Water Diviner has one hell of a flawed screenplay with tonal shifts galore. None of it is particularly bad, but when you go from a down to earth truly vicious war scene to a feel good romance scene in an exotic country there's some whiplash (How good was that movie!) there. There is a good call though to make the mystical element very subtle, and use it more to push the story along then make it something that you should pay full attention to. If they'd gone all out on it it probably would have crashed the more sentimental aspects of the film. But all that said the performances are really good. I mentioned Crowe earlier, and him and his costar Olga Kurylenko have some nice banter even as I've with most other elements of the film the screenplay chokes the hell out of it. There is a fun kid in it though, and Jai Courtney doesn't give a wooden performance so I'll take it. The Water Diviner is a greatly directed work even if the screenplay keeps it from really being what it could. I give The Water Diviner a 6.5 out of 10. Written by Stephen Tronicek.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |