Film review: The Water Diviner - Russell Crowe's directing debut
It's no surprise to see Russell Crowe bring along his soulful machismo as he makes the leap to the other side of the camera. What's less expected, however, is the actor/director's aptitude in staging an old-fashioned period drama and delivering its anti-war message with a visceral punch.
Starring: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Yilmaz Erdogan
Director: Russell Crowe
Category: IIB (English, Turkish)
It's no surpriseto see Russell Crowe bring along his soulful machismo as he makes the leap to the other side of the camera. What's less expected, however, is the actor/director's aptitude in staging an old-fashioned period drama and delivering its anti-war message with a visceral punch.
Also reviewed: Child 44, a Soviet-set thriller
Four years after his three soldier sons were presumed dead on the battlefield of Gallipoli, a trauma that drove his wife to suicide, outback farmer Joshua Connor (Crowe) travels to Turkey in 1919 on a mission to find his boys' remains in the war graves.
It sounds ludicrous — as the Aussie officer (Jai Courtney) and Turkish major (Yilmaz Erdogan) stuck with Connor would concur — but Crowe deserves credit for suspending his audience's disbelief for this near-mystical story: just because Connor can divine desert springs we're ready to accept he can find his sons, too.
Although the preposterousness of that quest is offset by Crowe's powerful depiction of the horrors of war for both the Australians and Turks, unfortunately splits its attention with a romance so tacky it drowns out the more salient ideas.
Also reviewed: Hong Kong thriller Angel Whispers
Played by Ukrainian-born Olga Kurylenko, the Muslim war widow Ayshe that Connor falls for turns out to be an expert in reading the future in her coffee — and that should make them a pair. Her choice of partner between her abusive married brother-in-law (Steve Bastoni) and our hero is predictable and, quite frankly, boring.
opens on April 16
