The Water Diviner
in Movies ·
Hmm. It feels as though the entire film is merely a skeletal framework—something carefully conceived, yet everything within it seems to be falling apart. There were stretches where I found it quite unconvincing. The moments intended to hit hard, the motivations, the very fates of the characters... it all left me with such a lukewarm impression, as if the director lacked either the patience, the will, or perhaps the sheer subtlety required to truly sink into the subject matter he was attempting to tackle.
For instance, we have the incredibly thin, lackluster portrayal of why the sons even bothered going to war in the first place; essentially, their motivation isn't even depicted, nor does the film bother to engage with it. Furthermore, the film completely ignores the father's stance on the whole ordeal. He explains his position, I think, in one solitary sentence about fighting for principles, which strikes me as pathetically insufficient—especially for a film of this caliber and given its central message. One could argue that the director is making a conscious choice to avoid "unimportant" minutiae, merely dropping hints and expecting the audience to construct the rest of the emotional weight themselves, but lately, I’ve begun rolling my eyes at this tendency to leave the most vital narrative segments as mere afterthoughts. To me, it starts looking less like artistic restraint and more like directorial laziness. I kept finding myself recalling scenes from the legend of autumn and Patriot, where young men eagerly rush off to war and clash with wiser, more seasoned men because of it; here, none of that is sufficiently fleshed out—in fact, the director doesn't even touch upon it—and that lack of backstory left me with an underwhelming, unfinished feeling.
Then there are the unconvincing reactions and behaviors of the characters (SPOILERS), from Crowe, who snaps at Hasan only to instantly calm down, undergo a sudden epiphany, and apologize to him—it happens so swiftly and crudely that it feels almost mechanical; to the equally mechanical Scarlett Johansson, who shifts from lamenting her fate under the boot of patriarchy to suddenly tossing aside all doubts and fears just because destiny is supposedly written in coffee grounds, acting as if everything else will simply fall into place. 🤔 Not to mention that the actress herself sticks out like a sore thumb; she doesn't fit the role of the woman from Turkey at all.
And I should mention the total absence of drama in the scene where one brother kills the other. Perhaps I just couldn't get invested, but it was never clear to me how he could be so certain in his position that the man was incurably wounded and thus deserved to be shot immediately afterward. Once again, I am reminded of the incomparably more powerful scene with the dying brother in the legend of autumn.
All in all, this is a clumsy, occasionally lost, and dramatically (to say nothing of other ways) unconvincing film, despite its noble intentions. The "reconciliation" between two people—one of whom is almost directly responsible for the death of the other's children (though one could debate those "responsibilities," as the film hints)—only to find their remains years later, carries a message of humanity that moved me, notwithstanding this stumbling directorial debut.
For instance, we have the incredibly thin, lackluster portrayal of why the sons even bothered going to war in the first place; essentially, their motivation isn't even depicted, nor does the film bother to engage with it. Furthermore, the film completely ignores the father's stance on the whole ordeal. He explains his position, I think, in one solitary sentence about fighting for principles, which strikes me as pathetically insufficient—especially for a film of this caliber and given its central message. One could argue that the director is making a conscious choice to avoid "unimportant" minutiae, merely dropping hints and expecting the audience to construct the rest of the emotional weight themselves, but lately, I’ve begun rolling my eyes at this tendency to leave the most vital narrative segments as mere afterthoughts. To me, it starts looking less like artistic restraint and more like directorial laziness. I kept finding myself recalling scenes from the legend of autumn and Patriot, where young men eagerly rush off to war and clash with wiser, more seasoned men because of it; here, none of that is sufficiently fleshed out—in fact, the director doesn't even touch upon it—and that lack of backstory left me with an underwhelming, unfinished feeling.
Then there are the unconvincing reactions and behaviors of the characters (SPOILERS), from Crowe, who snaps at Hasan only to instantly calm down, undergo a sudden epiphany, and apologize to him—it happens so swiftly and crudely that it feels almost mechanical; to the equally mechanical Scarlett Johansson, who shifts from lamenting her fate under the boot of patriarchy to suddenly tossing aside all doubts and fears just because destiny is supposedly written in coffee grounds, acting as if everything else will simply fall into place. 🤔 Not to mention that the actress herself sticks out like a sore thumb; she doesn't fit the role of the woman from Turkey at all.
And I should mention the total absence of drama in the scene where one brother kills the other. Perhaps I just couldn't get invested, but it was never clear to me how he could be so certain in his position that the man was incurably wounded and thus deserved to be shot immediately afterward. Once again, I am reminded of the incomparably more powerful scene with the dying brother in the legend of autumn.
All in all, this is a clumsy, occasionally lost, and dramatically (to say nothing of other ways) unconvincing film, despite its noble intentions. The "reconciliation" between two people—one of whom is almost directly responsible for the death of the other's children (though one could debate those "responsibilities," as the film hints)—only to find their remains years later, carries a message of humanity that moved me, notwithstanding this stumbling directorial debut.