The Revenant

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2016)

The Revenant is a very competent fusion of cinematographic technique and artistic vision, whose stylistic attributes transcend a simultaneously dense and empty screenplay. For some reason, the general effect it leaves is lesser to the experience offered by the individual scenes. Its narrative basis exclusively lies on the traditional ideals of the western genre (self-sufficiency, honor, revenge and the unavoidable challenge of natural forces, while they are paid the respect they deserve). And sure, all that is spiced by wide doses of pseudo-philosophy in order to prove that the main character's physical torture has a cosmic meaning we can barely understand ("God is a squirrel"). In summary: much ado about nothing. Having said that... what a good ado. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and the brilliant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki repeated the amazing visual ballet of Birdman, with the graceful camera floating without any difficulty over complicated sequences in order to display the most dramatic details of the action and the performances in a simultaneously casual and precise way, sometimes with open shots which illustrate the geography of the locations, and sometimes, with those eloquent extreme close-ups which never feel confined. Unfortunately, what The Revenant couldn't preserve from Birdman are the deliciously intricate screenplay and its rich tapestry of character and emotion, which, after all, ended up being more important than any tracking shot or invisible integration of special effects. On the opposite, The Revenant is a simplistic linear tale with unidimensional characters who suffer a lot... but express little beyond of what is evident. Hugh Glass is the hero with a strong volition and a very clear motivation; Fitzgerald is the devious, treacherous and intolerant villain. And that's it. Two hours and a half of a slow chase, extraordinarily shot but without a bigger dramatic ambition. Sure, besides of the hero and the villain, we also have another faction of persecutors to complicate things a bit and bring us a lesson about the evilness of "white man"; but leaving that aside, they don't have much relevance, at least until the screenplay needs them as a predictable deus-ex-machina. On the positive side, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy received deserved recognition for their excellent performances, and I would also like to mention Domhnall Gleeson's unfairly ignored work, in which he credibly displays a good range of emotions. This is undoubtedly a "style over substance" case, but in spite of that, The Revenant was a very interesting experience, and it definitely deserves to be watched on a big screen in order to appreciate its technical triumphs better.