On the whole I am not a fan of Russell Crowe. I don't like him as a person. I am not a fan of most of his work. However, he does have his moments. While he was getting rave reviews and winning an Oscar for Gladiator I much preferred his performance the year before in The Insider where he lost out to the over-rated Kevin Spacey in American Beauty.
He fits well with the ensemble of LA Confidential. For the most part I like what he does in A Beautiful Mind, but I don't think it was Oscar-nomination worthy.
And the Water Diviner, as his Directorial debut, is a microcosm of Crowe himself. There are a lot of parts I can't be bothered with interspersed with some genuinely top quality filmmaking.
The battle of Gallipoli is used as an icon of ANZAC culture. A moment of time with no equal in the culture of a nation. The sections of the film covering the battle and the horrors of war are outstanding. It doesn't quite match Saving Private Ryan or Gallipoli for sheer heartbrake, but it is certainly competing in the same league. Just the timing and placement of those scenes in the movie is not quite right.
Some of the establishing shots are fantastic. The scenery in Australia and Turkey and the devastation of the latter are fabulous. The interior architecture of some of the buildings is shot from unusual angels, but mostly in sympathetic ways.
The Turkish Major Hassan and his Sergeant are an effective foil for Crowe but some of their decisions seem at odds with their motivations.
Jai Courtney finally does a job that doesn't grate. That has eased my fears about the new Terminator movie.
The CGI sections are a bit weak. The sandstorm looks like it was done in the 90's the explosions during the battle are often similarly 'budget'.
*SPOILERS FROM HERE*
The continuity in the size of Crowe's belly is an annoying distraction. He starts the film as a farmer digging a hole looking like he just walked out of the gym and ends the film as a fat older man, supposedly less than a year later. That in itself is too big a shift, but the problem is that it must have been shot out of order as his weight goes up and down between scenes.
The relationships between characters seem a bit rushed, but that is a constraint of having so many of them squeezed into the film. Most of the characters going through a paradigm shift in their attitudes almost within scenes seems overly hurried.
The tacked on love story and the ridiculous happy ending are a particular annoyance. Harking back to my previous complaints; the chubby, ageing man with no respect for the local culture and from a country recently at war and directly to blame for killing her first husband just doesn't fit with the mourning ex-Bond girl half his age.
Overall it is a great debut. Crowe definitely has a career behind the camera if he chooses that route. 7 out of 10. I could easily have gone to 8 if the pacing had been better.
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