Movie Review: The Water Diviner (2014)

A post-war drama, The Water Diviner explores themes of recovery from tragedy and broader cross-cultural understanding. An appropriately somber mood is compromised by too much plot.

In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) is still grieving the death of his three sons in the Gallipoli campaign three years prior. Their bodies were never recovered. When his wife Eliza succumbs to her anguish, Joshua makes the long journey to look for his sons' remains in Turkey. He finds the victorious Allies in control of the country, with Australian Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Hughes (Jai Courtney) leading an excavation of Gallipoli battle sites to recover and identify fallen soldiers. Major Hasan (Yılmaz Erdoğan) of the defeated Turkish army provides reluctant help.

As Joshua searches for the remains of his sons, he tangles with Hasan, who was on the battlefield when the Connor boys died. Joshua also gets involved in the life of widowed innkeeper Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) and her young son Orhan. Joshua and Hasan move from adversaries to allies, and have to survive skirmishes with the invading Greek army.

The directorial debut of Russell Crowe, The Water Diviner is loosely inspired by real events. The title references Joshua's ability to find water wells in otherwise barren land, a talent that may also translate to locating his fallen sons on a scarred battlefield filled with ghosts. The film's scope is ambitious, almost epic, and combines a father's intimate search with cultural detente. Whether in rural Australia, on the desolate Gallipoli terrain, or within a bustling Istanbul, Andrew Lesnie's cinematography is suitably grand, and portrays Turkey after the Great War as a stunned nation seeking a path to recovery. Efficient flashbacks to grinding trench-to-trench battles are effectively gory but avoid excess.

When the narrative remains focused on healing the wounds of war, The Water Diviner maintains promise. But the script by Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios crosses from expansive to cluttered. Joshua's journey is bogged down in the affairs of the widow Ayshe, who is being pressured into marrying her brother-in-law. Whatever the film wants to say about local culture is lost when the evolving friendship between Joshua and Hasan takes centre stage, followed by the re-emergence of a ragtag Turkish militia to counter unexplained Greek aggression. A surrogate father-son bond between Joshua and Orhan also starts and stops more than once, but not before branching off into a dead-on-arrival subquest for Orhan's father.

Crowe eventually remembers the core plot and gathers up the search-for-the-missing-sons story, achieving some moments of true poignancy. But by then the initial dramatic thrust is dissipated and replaced by unnamed Greek enemies, silly narrow escapes involving cricket bats, and an obligatory overture towards romance.

Crowe directs himself in a soulful and restrained performance, and finds a good foil in Yılmaz Erdoğan's patient portrayal of Major Hasan. Olga Kurylenko is competent but predictable as Ayshe, while the underutilized Jai Courtney brightens proceedings. The Water Diviner finds some wells of inspiration, but also digs then abandons too many holes.



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Movie Review: The Exception (2016)

A World War Two spy story and romance, The Exception offers good ingredients for a wartime thriller but the mix is lumpy.

In 1940, the Nazi war machine rolls into Holland. Captain Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) is assigned to protect Germany's former Kaiser Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer), who has been living in exile in Utrecht since the humiliating defeat of the Great War. Brandt, who has a chequered military career history, immediately starts a steamy affair with the Kaiser's Dutch housemaid Mieke de Jong (Lily James).

Dietrich (Mark Dexter) of the SS is looking for a British spy in the area and warns Brandt there may be a plot to assassinate the Kaiser. Meanwhile, the Kaiser's wife Princess Hermine (Janet McTeer) still dreams of a return to the throne, and her hopes are elevated when Heinrich Himmler (Eddie Marsan) plans a visit.

Filled with sharp uniforms, the cockiness of a victorious army on the march, high-level intrigue, cross-generational tension, and slick styling, The Exception provides swirling chicanery on many fronts. It is never less than engaging, but also lacks narrative focus. The Simon Burke script, adapting the book by Alan Judd, creates plenty of overlapping characters, events and competing agendas. But director David Leveaux struggles to find a focused thrust, and the film divides its energy among multiple protagonists.

At various times The Exception wears the coat of different movies. Mieke is a spy on a mission, Brandt is charged with protecting the Kaiser, and their urgent love affair creates a potential collision course, even before she reveals another secret. But not satisfied with the story of dangerous lust, the film invests plenty of time on the parallel story of the Kaiser and his wife.

Wilhelm is still re-living the agony of defeat and exile, refusing to accept his role in the subsequent humiliation of his people. The nakedly ambitious Hermine believes redemption is close at hand and insists on plotting a return to the glory of the throne. Caught between them is Colonel Sigurd von Ilsemann (Ben Daniels), the Kaiser's loyal attendant, who understands that Wilhelm's open disdain of everything the Nazis stand for is unlikely to endear him to the likes of Himmler.

And so The Exception often forgets the spy story in favour of grandiose scenes of Christopher Plummer holding court with suspect proclamations about the past and the present, then shifts again to an appropriately nervous Janet McTeer betting everything on a return to Berlin. Meanwhile Dietrich and Brandt circle each other like two wolves about to engage in battle, while the scenes between Jai Courtney and Lily James alternate between hot sexuality and cold spy games.

Despite the absence of a singular purpose, director Leveaux adds a gloss of quality to all the mini plots, the Kaiser's grand mansion and surrounding estate providing a rich visual setting for the multiple dramas. The Exception may not quite know which plot to chase, but looks quite good testing them all out.

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