The Water Diviner

[LatrellBrown]

Watched this in Kingston yesterday I felt that this was a good film Russell at his best however I too didn't understand how he managed to know exactly where his kids where. 7.5/10

[ahman]

Watched this in Kingston yesterday I felt that this was a good film Russell at his best however I too didn't understand how he managed to know exactly where his kids where. 7.5/10

He must have a sixth sense to have been a successful water diviner in the first place. Would be interested to know more about the background of the event if indeed it was based on a true event. Just the same, I enjoyed the film very much.

[chelle1973]

Really enjoyed this, very inspiring! Russell Crowe was excellent, as were the other cast members inparticular Major Hasan. 9/10

[rpate]

I saw this at the ShowFilmFirst premiere at the Greenwich Odeon. I had never been to that cinema before and was surprised to find that a bus literally runs there directly from outside my front door! It is a massive cinema complex and we were able to sit in premiere seats for the preview, which was a spacious bonus. There was a child sitting adjacent to my partner who stamped her feet throughout the screening and was clearly uninterested in the film (and it does have a 15 certification and she appeared to be about 10 years old!).

I honestly wasn't terribly fond of the film and wouldn't have pa*d to see it- Russell Crowe is very wooden on screen and his direction is surprisingly confusing, relying on many old old cinematic cliched conventions (overuse of slow-motion to convey emotion, advancing the narrative with time spans passing with use of intertitles and general historical inaccuracies where he has romanticised and idylised Turkey's landscape, culture and people at that time in history).

I felt that the whole film pandered to Australian patriots and painted many other nations in a bad light, especially with regard to their perspective on the Great War and their humanity in general in the aftermath!

This is a pretty forgettable film, but the positive points are some good cinematography that was worth seeing on a large screen- I'm thinking of some of the beautiful architecture in Turkey and a sandstorm scene in the Australian outback. The only character who I sympathised with was Major Hasan, played by Yilmaz Erdogan, but the rest of the performances were forgettable.

This film was clearly not my cup of tea, as other reviewers seem to have enjoyed The Water Diviner, so take my review as a very subjective opinion!

5/10

[Bluebell]

I watched this film in Bath yesterday. Whilst I am not a huge Russell Crowe fan I thoroughly enjoyed the film which was helped by the beautiful cinematography. I would be interested to know just how much of the film was based on true events. I suspect a fair amount of poetic license was employed when describing how the sons' bodies were found as it is difficult to see how the father was able to identify the spot where his sons had fallen.

7.5/10

[alythonian]

Apart from the annoying wife with her mobile phone, I really enjoyed this and I though Russell Crowe really slotted into the role. The Russian actress playing the Turkish lady was a bit too glam and OTT for me though. Other than that I really enjoyed the film. Having been to the war graves at Galipolli it really it a haunting place and 100 years on, I know that there are a lot of Anzac commemorations planned for next month. I really appreciated hearing and seeing the Turkish side as well and thought the Turkish actors were exceptionally well cast. A solid 8.5 from me.

[pcRock]

I would be interested to know just how much of the film was based on true events. I suspect a fair amount of poetic license was employed when describing how the sons' bodies were found as it is difficult to see how the father was able to identify the spot where his sons had fallen.

I was wondering the same myself, so I had a look on imdb and found the following in a thread about the real story:
The plot premise is based on the one very intriguing line found in a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Hughes, who was an integral part of the Imperial War Graves unit in Turkey in the years immediately after the First World War: "One old chap managed to get here from Australia, looking for his son's grave".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32X2PhMWNdU

[midian]

The plot premise is based on the one very intriguing line found in a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Hughes, who was an integral part of the Imperial War Graves unit in Turkey in the years immediately after the First World War: "One old chap managed to get here from Australia, looking for his son's grave".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32X2PhMWNdU

thanks for that. when it said 'inpsired by real life' i was intriuged where the line was drawn.

i partly agree with rpate. i particularly loved the shots of the blue mosque and some of the landscape shots. i enjoyed seeing the battle from the turkish perspective and the cameraderie between the turks was fun. kudos to the the turks; they acted well.

but RC was very wooden. and his directorship relied heavily on cinematic conventions. but I can forgive him that as he is new to this task, i think. and i would also have liked a bit more earlier on about gallipoli/anzac as knew nothing about it before going into the film.

i found some visual cues jarring, many people were just bad caricatures. like the handsome & noble australian officers, the stuck-up british, the not-conventionally attractive and sometimes brutal turks and the hideously ugly and violent greeks. not a terribly subtle pecking order. the visual contrast bewteen the officers counteracted what the text was saying - that all suffering through war is awful, everyone is brutalised and brutal and thereby equal. i guess it makes a change from the americans as the gorgeous heroes.


the romantic love interest was odd, too.

Spoiler

Show

i was a bit bit shocked when it just abruptly ended with RC just grininng at the camera. I thought to myself why would she want to leave her country and her wonderful hotel and intellectual pursuits to go live in a middle-of-nowhere outback farm? or does he stay on turkey? too unresolved for me. Or maybe I am asking to much, overthinking it?

so it was mixed bag for me. a good effort but not wholly successful in my view.

[ejwrank]

Couldn't stand it myself. I thought Russell Crowe was awful -- directing and acting -- a step too far. I thought the story was so contrived as to be ridiculous. I had low expectations but this was very poor.

[prettyxcool]

I thought it was an emotional film. It was poignant, about grief, hope and romance, and what happens after the war, and I was really touched. It felt real even though it was inspired by true stories.

The story was told from both sides for a change, and so well and sensitively told too. Quite sympathetic to the Turkish cause, which is refreshing. Only the British was depicted as obnoxious, and the Greeks, the bad guys. Well casted and acted even down to the little Turkish boy, except for Russell Crowe who just seems to be Russell Crowe, and definitely too much close ups of him. I thought the Ukranian actress, Olga Kurylenko bears a strong likeness to Catherine Zeta Jones. Jai Courtney turns up as the sensible Lt-Col Cecil Hilton.

I enjoyed it. 8/10

Nice to see so many FMUKers at Holloway Odeon on a Sunday morning and Screen 7 was packed. I sat in the Premiere seats and the only difference seems to be that there were a lot more leg room.