All is Lost can be compared to such films as Gravity, Cast Away or Life of Pi. Gravity comparisons have been that All is Lost is Gravity at sea. This is helped by the close proximity of the release dates of the two, along with several other similarities. Cast Away is an obvious one to make from the sea angle. Life of Pi comparisons fall in for this same reason. With all of these comparisons, there was room for feeling either too similar and familiar or too abstract, and become a pretentious mess. Luckily due to the immense talents behind the camera and the sole talent in front of the camera, All is Lost is a fantastic success. It is thrilling without almost any dialogue, has beautiful cinematography, great direction, and is led by a superb lead performance.
All is Lost is about Our Man who is at sea in the Indian Ocean. His boat getting hit by a shipping container, which is the first of many problems for him as he has to survive the many dangers.
All is Lost is a fantastic thrilling survival movie set at sea. It is also impressive that it got made and is only the director’s, J.C. Chandor’s, 2nd film. His first film was Margin Call, which was a great character filled, dialogue heavy thriller about the financial crisis. This is his sophomore feature and it is a nearly wordless, one character thriller about a man lost at sea. How well they both turned out while being very different is a testament to the ability of Chandor.
Now he is not the only talent responsible for how well this movie turned out. For one, there is Robert Redford. He is the only actor in the movie and is superb despite not saying many lines of dialogue. It is a very physicial performance and a great one. He could be up for the Oscar if it was not such a crowded season. But he is a long shot to get in even though he deserves to.
They are not the only two talents that make this work. The cinematography is beautiful when it needs to be and the same with feeling confined. It is even more impressive if you think about how the cinematographer and Redford were stuck in the boat and lifeboat together along with the director.
There is also a talent who works completely behind the scenes. That is the composer. The score for All is Lost is excellent. It kicks in in the right moments and does not feel over bearing. Overall, All is Lost is a fantastic thrilling nearly wordless, beautiful looking and excellently scored survival film with a superb lead performance.
All is Lost is rated PG-13 for brief strong language. That is accurate as Redford curses briefly. I give All is Lost a losing A.
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