All Is Lost (12A)

Occasionally, Cineworld do a good thing. Something so good you could almost hug the manager.

Late last year, All Is Lost popped up and then, ironically, seemed to sink without trace. Then, low and behold, there it is in Sheffield.

And this is something that, at the end of a pretty crappy week, has put a spring back in my step.

Now I know a film about one man in a boat isn't going to be everybody's cup of desalinated sea water, but when that man is Robert Redford, and the writer director is J.C. "Margin Call' Chandor...

I know some people have said All Is Lost is Life Of Pi without Richard Parker, but it's not. It's so much more than that.

If it's going to be likened to anything, it should be likened to Gravity. Only in a boat, obviously.

Also, before I start waxing lyrical, let's be clear from the outset - while short, this film is slow paced, and some people (podcast listeners will know who I mean) will claim nothing happens.

Cobblers is my considered response.

I'll be honest, cast anyone other than Redford as Our Man and this film could easily have slipped into nothingness.

Instead, from the opening scenes of water lapping around his cabin bed, Redford just owns the screen.

There's no competition, no acting off anyone, no reacting to lines being delivered - there's just Redford, a boat, a life raft and the open sea.

And it's mesmerising.

He is so believable, so entrancing, that when Our Man stumbles or falls you find yourself going to catch him. When he's struggling to light a flare, it's all you can do NOT to shout at the screen.

The filming of All Is Lost is as equally as good as Redford's performance (another ball dropped by the Oscar numpties), shifting effortlessly between the darkened cabin, the airy deck and the sun-baked life raft (we know it's a life raft, because when it's dropped down it says so in big letters).

But the piece de resistance is the sound.

Subtle orchestration keeps you afloat during the more peaceful moments, but when the drama starts increasing everything is left to the ambient sound - the creak of a boat, the distant rumble of a storm.

This works so well, you'll find your heart skipping a beat before you've twigged what's happening. And just because some wood creaked.

Now, as I said earlier, All Is Lost has been likened to Life Of Pi - which is wrong on many levels.

For a start, All Is Lost works sublimely in 2D. No need for oars to poke out at the audience here.

Also, the level of believability is so high, adding tigers (real or imaginary) would capsize the whole thing. There's no need for stripy metaphors or people in Our Man's head. He's too busy trying to stay afloat after hitting a stray container.

And that's why this film has far more in common with Gravity - one person fighting for survival following events beyond their control.

Only on water, obviously.

And if nothing else, the water is the reason Redford should be up for a gong. By the end of the film, he's been soaked so often it's a miracle he hasn't shrunk.

Given that he's no spring chicken, to see him thrown into the drink on so many occasions just gives more respect for this performance.

I'd even go as far as to suggest it could be his finest.

Remember, there's just him. No one else. Yet, through subtle touches and even subtler actions, you feel you know exactly who Our Man is from the off.

Which is why you are rooting for him.

While Bullock was given the time (and space, eh? Eh? Really? No one?) to explain her character's back story, Redford has just wardrobe, props and his face. That's it.

And he bloody nails it.

So often you chase a film down, desperate to see something you believe to be special, only to find it was a bit 'meh'.

With All Is Lost, high expectations were exceeded to such an extent I may move into Sheffield's Cineworld for the next few days just to watch it endlessly on repeat.

My one regret is not seeing it before the end of 2013 because THIS would have been my film of the year.

(PS - just watched the trailer again. My heart is now racing. Again.)