Greetings again from the darkness. In Cast Away, Tom Hanks makes friends with a volleyball. In The Old Man and the Sea, Spencer Tracy talks to the whale. In Harvey, James Steward chats it up with a tall imaginary rabbit! It takes Robert Redford to show us how to face isolation with dignity and silence (save one well-deserved F-word).
Writer/director J.C. Chandor brought us the very good Margin Call (2011), which was filled with many characters and significant dialogue. Here, he delivers a single character and no real dialogue - only the initial log entry and a couple of SOS calls into a short-circuited radio. This is one man's struggle for survival. It's that man vs nature. It's our man facing mortality and isolation.
So you are probably wondering how this can hold your attention for two hours. The real answer is Robert Redford. At age 77, his screen presence is remarkable. Having never been a "showy" actor, his performance and this movie depend on facial expressions, his body language, and mostly his ability to connect with an audience immediately. Technically, the movie is exceptional, especially in sound design and in creating a terrifying and believable situation.
Alex Ebert's music is subtle and effective, but let's get real ... Mr. Redford and his mop of red hair are the reason to see this movie. There is almost no back story on this character, other than what we infer from his opening log entry. We know his "I'm sorry" has many meanings to his family, but we soon realize his will to live probably comes from an internal drive connected to his apology. It's nice to see a role for an older actor that doesn't included stupid humor designed to make kids laugh. Not much humor in this one, but there's no reason to be sorry.
Writer/director J.C. Chandor brought us the very good Margin Call (2011), which was filled with many characters and significant dialogue. Here, he delivers a single character and no real dialogue - only the initial log entry and a couple of SOS calls into a short-circuited radio. This is one man's struggle for survival. It's that man vs nature. It's our man facing mortality and isolation.
So you are probably wondering how this can hold your attention for two hours. The real answer is Robert Redford. At age 77, his screen presence is remarkable. Having never been a "showy" actor, his performance and this movie depend on facial expressions, his body language, and mostly his ability to connect with an audience immediately. Technically, the movie is exceptional, especially in sound design and in creating a terrifying and believable situation.
Alex Ebert's music is subtle and effective, but let's get real ... Mr. Redford and his mop of red hair are the reason to see this movie. There is almost no back story on this character, other than what we infer from his opening log entry. We know his "I'm sorry" has many meanings to his family, but we soon realize his will to live probably comes from an internal drive connected to his apology. It's nice to see a role for an older actor that doesn't included stupid humor designed to make kids laugh. Not much humor in this one, but there's no reason to be sorry.