“an old-fashioned, big-canvas, melodramatic blockbuster ... a heart-warming tale of family, love and sacrifice”
Screen International
Russell Crowe (Noah) stars as Joshua Connor in his directorial debut, The Water Diviner, a postcard war melodrama illuminated by beautiful colours and sunshine-through-leaves lighting. In the film, water symbolises a spiritual connection the protagonist shares with three sons lost in the Great War (missing in action and presumed dead) and a grief-stricken wife. Determined to bring his boys’ bodies home, Joshua travels to Constantinople and stays at a hotel managed by a beautiful and mysterious woman named Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) as he tries to find a way to Gallipoli. When Joshua encounters the people responsible for crimes against his sons, the film reveals its hand as a moral fable about the redemptive powers of forgiveness. Early in the film we learn of Joshua’s unusual ability to know where water is. That this sixth sense doesn’t feel clumsy or preposterous is one of the film’s subtle but significant achievements. The Water Diviner may be fable-like, but there is an emotional truth at its core that is both wholesome and compelling.
Luke Buckmaster
The Guardian
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