All is lost

Actually, he just wanted to take a relaxing sailing trip and escape from his everyday life. But when his sailing yacht collides with a container drifting in the sea, a fierce fight for life and death begins for the man (Robert Redford). Without a radio or navigation system, he is left to fend for himself. Hoping that the current will lead him to a busy shipping lane, he must brave the scorching sun and his fears in his makeshift boat. But soon the next deadly danger looms in the form of an oncoming storm.

Following his ensemble piece The Great Crash - Margin Call, which was almost entirely dialogue-driven, director and screenwriter J.C. Chandor delivers a film with All is Lost that seems to be the complete opposite of its predecessor. Apart from a radio call for help, the one-man chamber play on the high seas manages completely without dialogue. Finding backers for such a project was not easy, of course. But with a lot of persistence and with Robert Redford on board, Chandor was able to raise the necessary funds and, after careful preparation, turn his high-seas drama into reality in just 30 days. And in doing so, he really did achieve a minor masterpiece. For the work, which was shot on the coast off the Mexican Ensenada, in the Bahamas and in the gigantic studio in which the Titanic already sank, has become extremely gripping and exciting despite all its minimalism.

Although Chandor takes his time to show even rather less exciting things like repairing the hull or cleaning the radio in relative detail, there is never really any boredom. This is due to the tense basic atmosphere that Chandor builds up very subtly, but all the more effectively for it. As a viewer, you simply root for the nameless man to succeed in freeing his yacht from the container, closing the leak or somehow sending a call for help before the next big storm hits. With wonderful images that in many moments manage completely without digital effects, the vastness and depth of the ocean take on a fascinating menace that is hard to resist.

To carry such a film, whose script runs to just thirty pages, all by yourself requires not only great acting talent, but also a fair amount of courage. Fortunately, Robert Redford has both. His performance is completely understated and that's what makes it so believable. His castaway is not an over-stylized hero, not an artificial figure, but a completely normal and therefore very accessible man for the audience. And it is precisely because of this that this struggle for survival is so compelling, even in its many quiet moments.

Surely, you have to get into this very special silent film. Pace, action, cool lines - admittedly, All is lost doesn't have all these typical blockbuster ingredients. Nevertheless, J.C. Chandor, with the help of his great leading actor Robert Redford, has succeeded in making great cinema, which proves that you can also achieve maximum effect with minimal means. This is suspense cinema of a very special kind and in any case: Absolutely worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp