rhjph

Beautifully made, very slow, monochrome film, in the classic tradition, with exquisite sound and with some wonderfully naturalistic, if distantly observed, performances, subtly infiltrated by stereotypical themes of toxic masculinity that mesh precisely, and fashionably, with today's zeitgeist.

Unusually, the user reviews here are, almost all, well-considered, and there is little useful to add. Music, cinematography, editing, lighting all support the consistent high standard of acting and direction. The themes - compassion, loneliness, manipulation, love, old age and so on - are teased out in careful Bennett fashion. We are engaged and entranced by a film that does not disappoint, yet does not seek to promise more than it can deliver. I saw Maggie Smith play a youthful Desdemona to Laurence Olivier's Othello, and this, at the other extent of her acting life, is as riveting performance as I can remember.

There is much to admire about this film: excellent sound design, good camera work and some tight editing. Redford can say a very great deal without uttering a word. It ought to have been nail-biting and penetrating. But it was let down by the minutiae of the screenplay and some important parts of the direction. Some of the technical errors pointed out by unnecessarily self-satisfied know-alls and counsellors of perfection can be set aside on the grounds that not every seasoned sailor follows the latest thinking on health-and-safety routines. The film should principally be focused on the reaction of a man on his own to danger and adversity. The actual events sent to try him are not the point, but they must at least be a plausible backdrop. If you know anything about ocean passage-making however then it is clear that Our Man is largely the victim of his own poor decisions and incompetence (and of course of his screenplay-writers), and not of fate or the elements. From the outset he appears to be resigned to that fate, responding to the flooding of his yacht by collision with a half-submerged container in a manner that is scarcely credible. It is as if he doesn't mind whether he floats or sinks, not a reaction that many seafarers would recognize. I suspect one should listen a bit more carefully to the opening voice-over as it may give a better glimpse of the type of person Our Man is, perhaps as someone, in old age, content to admit to ultimate failure, and with only an intermittent urge to survive that comes more from habit than intent. One would like to have been able to ignore his stupidities and the inanities of the screenplay in order to concentrate on the manner of his confrontation with imminent death, but they are just too intrusive and implausible to overlook. A pity, but this sort of film was always likely to appeal to a specialist audience knowledgeable about the sea, and the advice of an appropriate consultant should have been sought and heeded. I am afraid the bulk of the negative user reviews are the director's and producers' just deserts.