“With the Red Sox parade clogging up most of the town, it made sense to pick movies at a walking distance theater. Actually, the originally scheduled red line maintenance had already dictated something similar. There was a decently timed out pairing I could execute at the Kendall, even if they weren’t my highest priority films. It started with All is Lost.
This one’s been on my radar for a little while since one of it’s producers is Zachary Quinto. It’s the same team that brought Margin Call. Besides that, it also made the list because of the Oscar buzz generating for its star, Robert Redford.
Here’s the deal. The film stars Redford and only Redford. Playing a man stranded at sea, there is no other cast whatsoever. Dialog is minimal (IMDB trivia said the script was only 32 pages). The performance was supposed to be quite powerful.
While I am being a bit pickier about my movie selection (at this point, just talk of a possible nomination isn’t enough if I wouldn’t otherwise be interested in teh film) I felt this one had to be seen in a theater. Since I’m usually gaming or sewing or engaging in some other activity when I watch movies at home, I tend to focus most on the dialog. That wasn’t gonna fly with this film. I also thought it would be a rather interesting concept to watch.
And it was, to a point. It is kind of amazing how something so simple could stretch into a full film. And Redford really did do an outstanding job of carrying the film by himself. But you can only watch variations of the theme for so long. I’m ashamed to admit I may have dozed off a bit in the middle. Yet I pretty much still knew what was going on once I got back into it. On one hand, the film afficionado in me appreciated the realism and humanity. But the entertainment junkie side would have preferred this going more Life of Pi with the fantasy element. I also felt like there was so much about this man that we didn’t know. My head was spinning with questions. “”Who is he?”” “”Why is he alone at sea?”” “”Who is his boat named for?”” “”Who was the farewell letter (read over the opening sequence, so not a spoiler) written to?”” Alas, with the film being completely in the moment, those will forever remain questions.
So on the one hand, I’m kinda glad that I satisfied my curiosity and discovered what the deal was with this film. But on the other, I feel I could have chosen a more fun way to spend my precious weekend time.
All is Lost – \m/ \m/ \n