All Is Lost

A man (Robert Redford) is sailing alone in his yacht but during the night, his vessel collides with a container adrift on the sea while he sleeps. The yacht is flooded and she loses her navigation and communication equipment and heads to a violent storm. When the yacht sinks, the sailor embarks in the liferaft that is carried adrift by the currents to a shipping lane. His fight for survival begins.

"All Is Lost" tells the story of a skilled sailor fighting to survive stranded in the high sea. Robert Redford has stunning performance, the cinematography is impressive but the writer is lazy and should have researched more about navigation and lifesaving procedures. In addition, there is no character development and the viewer never knows what the man is doing in the Indian Ocean.

Vessels have bilge pumps and EPIRB and pleasure yachts usually have also portable bilge pumps. Robert Redford is shaved all the time and never wears lifejacket or immersion suit or even a hat to protect from the sun, maybe because he is the star of the movie and needs to show his face. The inflatable liferaft does not seem to have the usual survival equipment and the sailor does not have a survival kit ready on board for emergency situations. But despite the flaws, "All Is Lost" is not a bad movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Até o Fim" ("Till the End")

This simple but very survival movie about a man stuck on a sinking boat is very engrossing and watchable. Who needs grand over blown special effects and fake CGI when you have a good story - it holds attention from beginning to end.

Direction is good - you can almost feel the heat, thirst, waves etc that have to be endured.

Would liked to have a bit more before and after about how he got out there and after being rescued.

Feel for the elderly Redford getting all wet and filming this movie must have been physically demanding.

Good and quite memorable.

This is one to watch, especially if you have watched and enjoyed Cast Away. To be honest I did not expect to like it so much, knowing the type of movie this is. It is really fascinating though to realise how well this movie goes on based purely on one man's resourcefulness. The pace of the film is great with the action scenes keeping me on the edge of my seat. Redford in his late 70s gives a truly solid performance confronting his misadventures with extreme calmness and pure dignity. The character gives real time lessons on how to survive under such dire circumstances. A film dedicated to mortality. Quite different from what you may have seen in related films. I definitely recommend it!

J.C. Chandor is a lucky man. After scoring an Oscar nomination with his 2011 screenplay and debut Margin Call, he swiftly got the opportunity to work one-on-one with another original script and a silver screen legend, Robert Redford. Unfortunately, Chandor is not a reliable hand behind a pen. After a promising first act and a killer ensemble, Margin Call seems to lose the will to live with no momentum, tension or really, drama, moving it towards the moment where the film sort of has to end. However, despite what its prologue may tell you, All Is Lost has the will to live. In fact, that's all its got as it wrestles through its narrative. The premise is both ambitious and minimal. It's a premise that you hear and wonder how someone could make a compelling film out of something so vague. Well All Is Lost achieves it, but holds onto that vagueness. I can't really recall the details of what happens besides miscellaneous actions, but this is a film about the experience and taking you along for the ride.

From a technical standpoint and for an independent film, it's rather unmatched. It may not be wide in scale, but it's convincing in the details of its design. Whereas sea-bound films such as Life Of Pi have been distracting for the moments where its pool sets are clearly apparent, All Is Lost is thoroughly convincing that we are forever in the middle of the ocean through its cinematography and special effects. I wish the editing didn't jump around as much, it was impossible to truly get immersed in the situations and the weight of the challenges. But most importantly besides the visuals, it's a soundscape. With much of the sources of the sounds coming offscreen, the conviction of the sound editing and mixing are astonishing and often frightening. The one dip out of the fly-on-the-wall approach is the score which appropriately highlights the films best and most poignant moments. But in a one-man band, it all hinges on our lead. Our Man, Robert Redford.

I've only seen him in a collection of 60s and 70s classics and I know at the very least he is a confident and often charming lead. I know him more for his direction work with his Oscar winning Ordinary People and Oscar deserving Quiz Show. All Is Lost was quickly pronounced his opus so I was intrigued given his reputation. With no dialogue to work with, his performance is in his overwhelmed but quiet expressions that try to grasp what little soul he has left. Surprisingly, it's not a showy performance but one that perfectly blends into the texture of the film. However, it doesn't achieve what Gravity achieves when faced with the risk of mortality. We don't know enough about Our Man, his story doesn't mean enough to us. Instead, we're left with a strong melancholy. As like Margin Call, the film simply deflates from its tragedy, and while they may try, characters can't do anything against the obstacles Chandor puts in front of them. At least this was a little more believable.

7/10

Redford is great and this film shows how such a simple idea with one actor can work. As a filmmaker, it was interesting to see how a dialogue-free movie can work visually with a story that reminded me of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." For me, the story was a metaphor or allegory for life and our struggles. Cinematography was good, shot on the Arri Alexa, one of the hot cameras at the moment. The lack of dialogue and having only one actor made it a meditation for me on the visual elements. I hope Redford gets Oscar nomination. I'm inspired that a veteran like Redford had confidence in Chandor to go on this experimental film journey together.