THE WATER DIVINER : Tuesday 13th January 2015.

I went into Russell Crowe's Directorial debut offering, 'THE WATER DIVINER' with reasonably high expectations and came out feeling decidedly let down. Aussie Russ is an Oscar winner after all; has built up a relatively strong portfolio of films; worked with some of the best Directors, Screenwriters and Cinematographers that are working today; has come across a story that could have been far greater than the sum of its parts; and has a story too that should resonate with just about every living soul in Australia and New Zealand at least given that its subject matter is about to have its centenary.

This is a fairly simple tale of northern Victoria farm dwelling Joshua Connor (Crowe, with lead Actor credit too) in the immediate lead up to and the aftermath of WWI. It is 1919, and he owns and lives on a huge farm and, you guessed it, has water divining skills too. These skills we see fairly early on as he walks around some distant paddock with a couple of wire coat hangers searching for water, and behold, when said wires cross and remain crossed - there be water! And so he starts to dig in the belting heat of the day until he is fifteen feet down and strikes . . . water! Clearly the man has talent!

What we then learn is that Joshua and his wife have three sons - all in their late teens who have packed themselves off to war in 1914, and Joshua reminisces about their departure with the three young lads literally ride off into the sunset to go to war. We then fast forward to late 1915, and the ANZAC's have been battling it out in their fiercest fighting with the Turks at Gallipoli. Overcome by the weight of sheer numbers the ANZAC's eventually retreat having sustained some 10,000 casualties versus 70,000 on the side of the Turks. In flashback however, we see some close quarter fighting between these two opposing sides and in the exchange of machine gun fire sons Edward (James Fraser) and Henry (Ben O'Toole) are killed leaving Arthur (Ryan Coor) injured by their sides.

Back to 1919 rural country Victoria and Joshua and his wife Eliza (Jacqueline McKenzie) try to keep the dream alive that there sons have survived the war against all hope. Tragically Eliza takes her own life racked with the pain of their loss, and burying her in the local cemetery Joshua vows to bring his sons home to lie beside her. And so he jumps on a boat in no time to make the three months journey to Istanbul where his search begins.

What follows is Joshua being hijacked by a little trumped up kid who nicks his bag and all his belongings but leads him to a hotel where he meets Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) the owner of the establishment looking for paying guests in the aftermath of a war stricken country. First Ayshe greets Joshua warmly, but when she learns that he is Australian she wants him evicted, excommunicated and extracted immediately given what went down at Gallipoli. Interestingly though it is no time at all before Ayshe becomes the love interest and romantic glances and playful conversation ensue! Meanwhile Joshua starts his search via the local war office to determine the whereabouts of his believed dead sons, with the aid of a diary whose last entry was August 7th 1915. He gets very short shrift from the stereotypical stuck-up stiff upper lipped pompous arse that is Captain Charles Brindley (Dan Wyllie) who wants to promptly return Joshua back from whence he came and let the Army deal with such matters. Having none of it and getting no where fast Ayshe gives Joshua a lead of a sailor friend who can get him to Gallipoli quickly and efficiently by water if he crosses his palm with silver, and so Joshua does just that.

Before you know it Joshua is there face to face with Lt. Col. Cyril Hughes (Jai Courtney) who presents a warm considerate caring hand to Joshua, but sees his quest as fruitless amongst the 10,000 or so ANZAC bodies that have to be found, identified and accounted for - what hope is there of finding three young lads across the whole peninsula? But, let's not forget that Joshua IS 'The Water Diviner' and surely he can divine human remains too . . . and yes he can! It seems that fairly easily he has a sense for where they are likely to be and behold a few inches under the surface beneath caked mud and clay Hughes' men dig up the remains of Edward and Henry as evidenced by their dog tags. But no Arthur!

All of this is overseen by Major Hasan (Yilmaz Erdogan) who gives the most solid and convincing performance of the entire cast. He was the man leading the campaign for the Turks at Gallipoli and therefore responsible for the death of so many ANZAC's - including probably Edward & Henry. Now post-war he is aiding the Australian contingent locate their dead soldiers given his intimate knowledge of the Gallipoli terrain. An unlikely friendship develops between Joshua and Hasan that eventually leads Joshua to learn that Arthur may still be alive having been taken prisoner after his brothers were killed.

And so the search shifts to Arthur amidst the backdrop of continuing Greek and Turk unrest across the streets of Istanbul and beyond, the love interest between Joshua and Ayshe, Ayshe's own family troubles, and the brick walls that Brindley continues to build around Joshua. Eventually riding through some remote Turkish village on horseback with Hasan and set upon by Greek rebels Joshua has a divining sense that Arthur is holed up somewhere in the locale . . . and by Jove, he is!

As for Crowe's Directing achievement, on the one hand we see some moments of real tension - a billowing dust storm in flashback sweeping toward the farm where Joshua comes to the rescue of his three young sons; some moments of beauty - inside Istanbul's Blue Mosque more for artistic effect than anything else - a gap filler almost because this film was the first ever to be allowed to film inside this famed temple; but everything else is stilted, disjointed, the acting wooden and the storyline plods along with stereotype characters, scene fillers and cheesy dialogue.

As an Actor I like Russell Crowe and he has more than proven his credentials over the years, but as a first time Director - he still has some way to go to fine tune his Directing skills if he is to add this skill to his Resume with any real merit. You don't need to see this on the big screen and can easily wait for the DVD/BluRay. Having been released in Australia and New Zealand on Boxing Day 2014, it get its US release on 24th April 2015 . . . not an insignificant date!

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-