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Australia, United States · 2014
Rated R · 1h 52m
Director Russell Crowe
Starring Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Yılmaz Erdoğan, Cem Yılmaz
Genre Drama, War
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In 1919, in the aftermath of his wife's suicide, Australian farmer Joshua Connor attempts to find his three sons, who were presumed dead in the Battle of Gallipoli four years earlier. Joshua travels to Turkey, navigating a country ravaged by trauma and continuing violence to find the truth about what happened to his children.
It’s an odd mix of "Saving Private Ryan" odyssey and romantic melodrama. It has sincerity, sensitivity and is often ravishing to look at but is let down by a chocolate box love story. Still, Crowe still might have a "Braveheart"/"Dances With Wolves" in him yet.
Time Out London by Cath Clarke
The Water Diviner is solid and old-fashioned.
An often capriciously mixed cocktail of war film and cross-cultural family melodrama, The Water Diviner marks an ambitious if emotionally manipulative directing debut for Russell Crowe.
Slant Magazine by Matt Brennan
In straining for the profound, the film ultimately loses its way in a veritable no-man's land of ill-conceived stylistic choices and narrative switchbacks.
As a director, Mr. Crowe’s camera meanders all over the place; as an actor, he mumbles and growls his way through the carnage like it was nothing more important than a re-make of Gladiator, filmed on old sets from Gene Autry westerns.
The performances are moving and get the job done, and Kurylenko (“Quantum of Solace”) wins us over by the way she slowly lets Connor, her enemy, win her sympathy.
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