'The Water Diviner' is sloggy and heartfelt
A subplot involving Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) and a romance with a Constantinople widow (Olga Kurylenko) shows that romance is not exactly Crowe's strong suit as an actor.
'The Water Diviner' stars Russell Crowe.
Mark Rogers/Warner Bros. Pictures/AP
鈥淭he Water Diviner,鈥� Russell Crowe鈥檚 directorial debut, is a sloggy,聽heartfelt piece of quasi-magical realist storytelling. Crowe plays聽Australian farmer Joshua Connor, who can 鈥渄ivine鈥� the presence of water聽from beneath parched soil. His three sons, as we see in flashback, have聽been been missing and are presumed dead in the infamous failed offensive聽four years earlier on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey in 1915. The loss聽drives Joshua鈥檚 wife to ruination. He vows at her gravesite to journey to聽the battlefield and locate their bones for consecration.聽
It would have been enough if Crowe and his screenwriters, Andrew聽Knight and Andrew Anastasios, had simply dramatized the doggedness of聽a despairing father as he attempts to 鈥渄ivine鈥� his sons' remains. But there聽is also a woozy subplot involving Joshua and a preposterously beautiful Constantinople聽widow (Olga Kurylenko). Romance is not exactly Crowe鈥檚 strong suit as聽an actor. His looks of longing are often indistinguishable from his stolid聽glares. Directing himself only compounds the problem. Grade:聽C+ (Rated R for war violence, including some disturbing images.)