Handsomely made, compelling in its brutality, but narratively a bit too simple

Rating: Null/10 (6 March 2016)

It is good to be wary around this time of year because with the Oscars and many other awards imminent, there is a tendency for studios to release 'worthy' films – many of them are really good too, but a lot of them are 'worthy'. It is hard to say which one The Revenant is, but it does certainly seem like a film where everyone went through a lot of physical hardship. I don't read around films much, so I'm guess on that, but the on-location shoot and freezing conditions seem too tangible for them not to have made the shoot a long and challenging one. If so then it paid off because this aspect of the film is by far the strongest element – the brutality, the fight for survival, and the contrast of these tiny people against the vastness of the landscape.
As such it is the technical delivery which is really the star. It is a consistently impressive and handsome film - whether it is the CGI bear of the opening 30 minutes, or cinematography which manages to have both nimble movement in/around the action as well as taking in the sweeping vistas as it reproduces the cold onto the screen. This aspect of the film carries it a long way, because for the most part this is a dialogue-free affair as Glass pulls himself from death to try and get revenge on another character. As a journey it is a tough slog and unfortunately it partly becomes that for the viewer too, because the film does have a slow pace and is essentially a slow crawl to its target. It does enough with the atmosphere to ensure the viewer is in the mindset where this works well, but it is not the type of film that one would throw on for a relaxing Friday night in. It is an odd feeling, but for me the time did not drag, and I was help by its single minded and consistent brutality, but at the same time it was not a story I felt gripped by in the detail of the character – more the overall experience.
The story does have the constant theme of parents and children. Of course this is the motivation for the revenge plot, but it is also behind the group of Native Americans who are also integral in the film; and of course the bear attack itself is a parent acting in defense of its cubs. This element is interesting but it doesn't always work. In the main plot it feels just like a plot device (which it is) and the floaty other-worldly connection to the dead wife doesn't chance that. The other father, hunting his daughter, doesn't bring a great deal to the film in terms of emotional content and, being honest, the only parent/child relationship that I really felt for was the bear cubs left behind by the death of their mother (I know, typical liberal watching people die but getting teary over the animals).
The cast match the sense of brutality, and they wear it well in their characters. DiCaprio of course gets the headlines, but others are just as strong and one could argue that Tom Hardy really gets the best of the film as he gets all the good lines, has the most tangible character, and where the film has standout scenes, he is mostly in them. The technical delivery is the overall star though, because it is a film that is handsome, very well made, and has a lot to like in the look, atmosphere and sound work throughout.
In this way it is more than worth a look, and it is compelling in what it does, even if at the same time it is not as strong in the characters and their stories as it is in the creation of this atmospheric struggle to survive.