A Boring, One-Note Slog

Rating: 5/10 (24 January 2016)

Revenge may be a primal human drive, especially in the setting and time period in which "The Revenant" is set, but it makes for a very boring narrative hook if you don't give a hoot about the person seeking revenge or the person that person is seeking revenge against.
Alejandro G. Innarritu's latest exercise in human misery is two and a half hours of Leonardo DiCaprio suffering capped off by a showdown that finds him getting what he wants -- the death of the man who left him for dead after being mauled by a bear and then killed his son. Does Innarritu use this story to bring any insight into the human condition? Are we given any reason to care about DiCaprio's character other than a couple of obligatory flashbacks that use narrative shortcuts to tell us that he had a wife who was killed? Could the villain, played by Tom Hardy without a hint of nuance or subtlety, be any more of a caricature? Innaritu directs every single shot with a self-conscious sense of self- importance, as if he's pausing to say to the audience, "Just wait and see how impressed you are going to be with my directorial skill." Too bad it all adds up to such a boring, one-note slog.
DiCaprio will win what everyone seems to think is a long overdue Oscar for this performance, despite the fact that he's given the same performance in his last ten movies and he's asked to do no more in this one than grunt, moan, and grimace his way through it. Every time I hear anyone talk about how brilliant he is in "The Revenant," the focus is on how difficult the shoot was, not how well he acted the part. Honestly, the brilliant makeup work is 95% of his performance.
"Birdman" was the first Innarritu movie I've really liked, and it looks like that was an anomaly. His philosophy seems to be predicated on the belief that human existence is something to suffer through until one finds a reward in the afterlife. Since I don't believe that at all, his movies have nothing to say to me.
Grade: C