Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: All is Lost

The cast list of All is Lost makes Gravity look like Cleopatra*. There is only one character, known as "Our man", played by Robert Redford. We don't know why he is out on a yacht in the middle of the Indian Ocean, or what he regrets so much in the note he is writing at the beginning. We don't even know the events that led to a floating modal container full of shoes crashing into his boat, which is the start of his mostly continuous problems. Beyond a few garbled voices over the radio that he temporarily gets working, we don't meet anybody else. The film is a stripped down story of a man and his boat, a story boiled down to the age old conflict of man versus his environment.

Given Robert Redford's notorious history as a person that is difficult to work with, it seems fitting that his latest role is one where he is the only character, and as such the focus of the entire film. Also, given Redford's reputation as pretty damn good actor, he gives a great performance. As he faces each obstacle, from the relatively small to the absolutely terrifying and life threatening, he mostly keeps his cool, using ingenuity and a strong will to survive to keep moving forward. Whether it is patching up the hole in his hull, making it through a gut wrenching storm, learning celestial navigation on the fly, or coming up with a way to use condensation to get fresh water, he is bound and determined to survive as long as he has air in his lungs.

This is not a film for those looking for a light-hearted escape from the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Things just keep getting worse as the movie goes along, even as "our man" overcomes everything in front of him. Some of the obstacles are scary, others are absolutely heartbreaking. By the end of the film it is skirting close to survivalist "porn", but thankfully never goes over that line. The visual effects, primarily the storm that tumbled the yacht around, are mostly flawless, a mixture of practical effects with CG where necessary. The trend of returning to more practical effects, while still improving CG and using it to support real effects, is very welcome to me.

Some people may get angry at the ending. I'm pretty sure the two other people in the large theater I watched it in did not like it. However, I can't think of any other way it could have ended. If this is playing near you, go see it and make up your own mind.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend, unless you are incredibly sensitive to watching movies that take place on the ocean or tense survivalist situations.

*This might be a bit of an exaggeration