The Water Diviner marks Russell Crowe's directorial debut and despite almost as many one note, conventional moments as powerful ones, still remains moving and generally engaging throughout. Mainly because, when's it's working, it's really working. Crowe plays an Australian father who must travel to Gallipoli in search of his three sons, all of whom were presumably killed in action during WW1. There he discovers that the battle lines often drawn in war are not so cut and dry, as he befriends and is aided in his quest, by some of the same Turkish officers whom his sons fought against. Some heart-wrenching battle scenes and strong acting all around, especially from Olga Kurylenko as a war widow and Yilmaz Erdogan as Maj Hasan, compensate for uneven pacing and for some of the film's more simplistic narrative tendencies. Considering this is Crowe's first feature, a more than worthy effort, with some beautiful cinematography and an important message at its core about honoring all the forgotten, unclaimed victims of war...
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