THE WATER DIVINER

Reviewed by Paul Gibbs
 GRADE: A-
Starring Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney, Yilmaz Erdogan,
Written by Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios
Directed by Russell Crowe
Rated R (violence, profanity)


Academy-Award winning actor Russell Crowe has joined the long list of Hollywood stars who have tried their hand at directing. And, like Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson and Angelina Jolie before him, he's taken on a large scale historical epic. While Crowe isn't likely to join Costner and Gibson as an Oscar winner (at least not for the this film), he's succeeded in helming a solid, moving film that may be too sentimental for some, but will likely please most audiences.

Crowe stars as Joshua Connor, an Australian farmer with the titular ability to find water on his land. In 1919, World War I has ended, and Connor's three sons have been killed at the battle of Gallipoli, which means Matt Damon gets to go home (wrong movie). Another tragedy prompts Connor to journey to Gallipoli to locate the remains of his deceased sons and bring them home.

In Gallipoli, a British officer (Jai Courtney) and Turkish Major Hassan (Yilmaz Erdogan) are locating and burying the dead, and nobody wants Connor in the way. But Hassan takes pity on Connor and offers help, even telling him his oldest son may still be alive. Meanwhile, Connor stays at a small Turkish hotel, where he befriends a young boy named Orhan (Dylan Georgigades) and his mother Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) the innkeeper. Ayshe's husband, a Turkish soldier, has been MIA for some time, but she clings to the hope he is still alive. Ayshe is at first hostile to Connor, seeing the Austrailian as her enemy, but his kindness to Orhan causes her to soften, and a friendship begins to develop, with the hint of something more.

All of this plays out in a fairly predictable, old fashioned manner, but strong performances and a general gentle sweetness to the scenes with Ayshe and Orhan cause us to become strongly engaged. Crowe is in near peak form as an actor here, and Kurylenko is something of a revelation. But the real standout is Erdogan, who provides the film with its most compelling character and performance, one that I would like to see remembered at Oscar time (though it likely won't be). As a director Crowe is not fully polished with his visual elements, sometimes framing his actors imperfectly and using too much slow motion in odd places. But he's able to tell a story very fluidly and passionately, and with the help of Lord of the Rings cinematographer Andrew Lesnie he's created a film that is overall visually strong. And he's created on truly masterful sequence (a flashback detailing the fates of Connor's sons at Gallipoli) that is disturbing and heartbreaking. And most of all, Crowe seems to have a strong ability to direct actors, as the performances are uniformly good. He's not a master filmmaker yet, but Crowe shows real promise as a director, and here's hoping he gets behind the camera again.

All in all, The Water Diviner isn't a great film, but it's a very good one, and if you can handle a film that mixes R-rated violence with gentle sentimentality, there are rewards to be found.