All Is Lost

Ratings: 7.8/10

Genre: Drama

Film Class: C

All Is Lost is about a resourceful sailor’s battle to survive the open seas after his yacht gets hit by a floating shipping container. It’s quite the worst case scenario, where it’s not just his yacht that’s leaking, his communications are all out and he’s lost at sea.

With imminent storms and threatening sharks, cliché but necessary, this is a one-man movie for survivor, a showcase of veteran actor Robert Redford's acting prowess. And he sure does fit his role impeccably.

Despite the fak-ish CG, Robert Redford is able to convince me that he’s really out there in the open seas and his perseverance for survival was easily contagious.

Don’t expect any ridiculous talking-to-oneself commentary, every time he starts doing something, you’ll just have to glue your eyes to the screen if you want to figure out what’s on his mind. It’s quite enlightening, and eye-opening, some of the stuff he does in the movie, looked realistic and probable. If I were to ever get lost in the seas myself, I might even resort to deploying a couple of his onscreen efforts to save myself.  

I guess the one important question on everyone’s mind is probably “So did he survive?” With a bleak title like this, and without giving anything away, I can only reply, “What do you expect?” 

But this movie isn’t about expectations, it’s about exposure, it’s about knowledge. Don’t even harbour any hopes of figuring the backstory because the only “explanation” and background story of him you’ll get is as vague and minuscule as his probability of survival.

Even though it got a bit draggy at the end, I enjoyed it. It’s one storm of a survival story.