[yasr_overall_rating]
An Australian man travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try and locate his three missing sons.
The greatest advantage that actor Russell Crowe has in this film is that he is the Director. In this first-time role, he had the foresight to choose Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie who has “Lord of The Rings and “The Hobbit” under his belt. This major decision seems very well to be the glue that catapults this story into a feature film. That being said, this isn’t a blockbuster, but an intriguing story that captures the essence of a simple farmer from Austrailia who searches war-torn Istanbul to find his sons, four years after the bloody battle of Gallipoli.
In the very beginning, Connor (Russell Crowe) who has made a name for himself with the nack of discovering untapped sources of water, seems to be a loner who has devoted all his time and energy to all things wet. Then very unexpectedly, he is surrounded by his wife Eliza (Jacqueline Mckenzie) who encourages him to read bedtime stories to the empty beds of his three sons who he lost contact with during the war. She then lashes out at him stating that if he can find water, then surely he should be able to find his sons. Before fully recovering from the whole idea that he is a family man, his wife is found drowned in a lake unable to live with the sorrow of being without her lost sons. Connor, who had taught his eldest son to always take care of his brothers, vowed that he would find his sons in order to avenge the death of their mother.
In an ironic twist of fate, Connor teams up with Turkish soldiers who fought against his sons during the war, to assist in his search to find them. After several unsuccessful leads, Connor learns that his two younger sons did not survive the war and his eldest suffered a different fate, but could possibly still be alive. When Connor reaches the area his son Art (Ryan Corr) is believed to be in, he finds a windmill that only Art could have built, and eventually he finds his son who is an emotionally-torn shell of the man he used to be. In true Russell Crowe form, Connor becomes the hero and escapes with his son, vowing never to part from him again.
The picturesque scenes make this film believable as it tugs at your heart’s strings with the delicate relationships that promote humanity and redemption. With several Austrailian Academy Cinema Televison Awards for this project, Russell Crowe has landed a win-win and deserves your patience as he charters new territory with a story that is worthy to be captured in front of and behind the camera, by the one man who is brave enough to do it.
In select theaters April 24th
