Susan Granger’s review of “The Water Diviner” (Warner Bros.)
It’s not surprising that most actors yearn to become directors, and Russell Crowe (“Gladiator,” “Master and Commander”) has the clout to get the financing for this debut feature. I suspect he learned a lot and will not make the same mistakes the next time.
Northern Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Crowe) lost three sons during the W.W. I Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915. After his grieving wife commits suicide four years later, he embarks on a tortured quest to find his sons’ remains and bring them back to be buried beside her in ‘hallowed’ ground.
Connor’s a “water diviner,” meaning he’s got a knack for finding underground water using dowsing rods. Using that mystical ability, he’s sure he can locate his fallen sons amid thousands of unmarked graves.
Arriving in Istanbul, he’s rebuffed by the British military. Undaunted, he settles into a local hotel, where he’s befriended the young son of a Turkish widow, Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko). She finds brawny Connor attractive but her brutish brother-in-law is persistently trying to make her his second wife.
Admiring his persistence, an Australian official (Jai Courtney) and two Turkish officer (Yilmaz Erdogan, Cem Yilmaz) aid in his quest, despite the on-going war with the Greeks that Connor doesn’t understand.
The implausible, often incoherent screenplay by Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios explains little of Turkey’s enduring feudal history, which makes continuity confusing. And their inclusion of a romantic subplot never evokes the viewer’s emotions, except anti-war sentiment when Connor bitterly notes, “I filled their heads with nonsense – God and King and country.”
Characterized by abrupt action beats, Crowe’s muddled direction lacks pacing; the melodramatic flashbacks of the Gallipoli bloodbath are repetitious. Wearing an Indiana Jones fedora, Crowe injects several chases – through the Turkish marketplace or galloping on horseback through the countryside. There’s even a visit to Istanbul’s legendary Blue Mosque – exquisitely photographed by Andrew Lesnie.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Water Diviner” is a poignant, somber 6, quenching your thirst for Crowe.
