Mostly a success

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2016)

The Revenant -
Hot on the heels of the success of his Oscar winning Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu turns his hand to the Western with a tale of double cross and revenge. DiCaprio plays fur trapper Glass, who is gravely wounded during an attack by a bear (in a fantastic and utterly convincing sequence) and ultimately abandoned and left for dead by some of his companions. How his lust for vengeance keeps him alive is the crux of the rest of the story. First of all the film looks fantastic, with a real Kubrick/Barry Lyndon feel to some of the visuals. From the snow on distant mountains to the mist winding through the forest its a fantastic looking piece. The score, by Japanese legend Ryuichi Sakamoto with Alva Noto and Bryce Dessner is also great, sparse and haunting. It mirrors the landscape perfectly. The acting by leads Leo DiCaprio, an almost unrecognisable Tom Hardy and Will Poulter is universally great, with DiCaprio in particular giving a completely committed performance as the wronged frontiersman Hugh Glass. If I had to criticise I would say that not everything works, some of the dream/fantasy sequences seem a bit naive and contrived, and it could also have benefited from being maybe 20 minutes shorter. But although the story is pretty slight and one-note I didn't find myself checking the time at all. I actually preferred it to Birdman. Overall its now my second favourite weird and violent snow draped western, losing the top slot to the vastly underrated Ravenous 7/10