Will The Revenant get Leonardo DiCaprio the Oscar?

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2016)

Plot: A fur trading expedition goes wrong and wildered after an attack by the Native Americans. The onus is on tracker Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) to get the team safely back. The pursuit becomes more complicated when Glass is viciously attacked by a 500lb grizzly bear. When his team is unable to carry him further, they leave him behind after paying mercenary John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) to stay back until Glass breathes his last. The untrustworthy Fitzgerald betrays Glass by the worst means possible. Thus begins the ruthless quest for survival and revenge.
For starters, The Revenant is a visual spectacle from scene one. Ace Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who has two back-to-back Oscars to his name for his impeccable work in Gravity and Birdman, hits the bull's eye yet again. Each frame is a work of art in itself, a feast for the eyes. Based in the nineteenth century, the film is shot in the most exquisite of locations in Argentina and Alberta and look almost heavenly. Alejandro G. Inarritu, the Mexican import who dished up the intense drama 'Birdman' last year helms a project much more complicated and ambitious. And he checks all boxes, well almost.
The film, which looks like an extended episode of Bear Grylls' 'Man Vs Wild', seems a tad too disbelieving at times.From Cast Away to 127 Hours, we've all seen survival films where the odds are heavily against the leading man. But Inarritu's protagonist, who by the way is 'loosely' inspired by a true character and true story, goes through stuff that even the manliest of Bollywood heroes wouldn't be able to endure.From getting ripped off and shattered by a merciless wild bear (in a spine chilling sequence- a highlight of the movie), to defying the Arikara warriors on multiple occasions, to falling off cliffs, to getting washed away in menacing streams, Glass has to be the toughest man to have ever walked on planet earth to survive it all.That probably is the only flaw in the otherwise flawless project. Innaritu's camera work is thrilling and mesmerising (Kudos to the brand new 6.5k ARRI 65 camera which makes its debut). His cast couldn't have been better. Will Poulter does a fine job. Tom Hardy, whose look reminds you of Game of Throne's 'The Hound', puts up a solid performance. At times, you cannot help get a reminiscence of Bane due to the similar voice pitch. All said, at the end of the day, The Revenant is a film made for Leonardo DiCaprio. Oxford dictionary might have to come out with fresh adjectives to describe his no-holds-barred performance, it is that good.
He fights a grizzly wild beast. He eats raw bison body parts. He sleeps in animal carcasses (The latter two for real to attain authenticity). He does it all. And with mind boggling finesse. Amidst freezing cold temperatures and fighting constant hypothermia. His struggle shows on the screen (in a good way of course). He speaks lesser dialogues than he ever has and that too in a husky voice, but expresses more than ever.
Leo's scintillating performance takes the survival turned revenge drama to an all new level of immensity. Without him, the film could have been just another visually appeasing film. Leonardo turns it into something else. You live with him throughout the length of the film, almost holding your own body at times to check if it hurts. As Hugh Glass defies all odds in surviving the wrath of nature, DiCaprio defiles all odds an actor could ever face. If this doesn't get him the coveted golden statuette, nothing will. There a famous joke that someday there will be a biopic made on how Leonardo DiCaprio never won an Oscar and the actor playing him will win an Oscar for it. After this role, that joke is ought to die a welcome death.
The Revenant might not be Leonardo DiCaprio's best film, but Hugh Glass is surely his best performance. It has all the ingredients the Academy looks for in an Oscar winner for Best Actor, something which critics have claimed he lacked all this while. (Yes even after Titantic, Catch Me If You Can, Aviator, Blood Diamond, Departed and more recently The Wolf of Wall Street). This year seems to be his year finally. Yes we've said it a half a dozen times before only to be proved otherwise, but this by far is the most realistic bet. After all the years of struggle and disappointment, the moment when it finally happens would be quite historic to say the least. Over to the 28th of February.