A grandly immersive cinematic experience

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2016)

It's not very often that you see an actor engaged in a gory struggle with a CGI bear (or any other animal for that matter) in a film and manage to make it utterly convincing and disturbing. DiCaprio does exactly that and in the process makes you wonder if it's actually a real bear. This scene takes place in the first 20 minutes and is the "major event" in the film that results in our protagonist being nearly dead with gashes in several places which includes one in the throat that would let out all the water if he drinks it, and a broken leg. There were multiple occasions where I gasped in horror and made me wonder how they pulled off those sequences. DiCaprio's performance is so frightfully realistic and dominating that I hope they finally give him the elusive Best Actor trophy that he badly deserves.
In one of my cinema discussions sometime ago with a friend of mine, we talked about how the most good-looking male actors in Hollywood might have a hard time trying to get someone to seriously consider their hidden acting skills as well and that they are not just a bunch of pretty faces trying to sell a film to mainstream audiences. Would they excel in meaty and dark roles? The names that came up, naturally, were Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and DiCaprio's. We both came to the conclusion that this generalization doesn't apply to DiCaprio as he is one of these "pretty boys" who can rise above that definition and has the ability to dismantle the so-called "playboy" image accorded to him by many and exceed our expectations in the acting department. He has been doing that for a while and is noticeably getting better with every film.
My full review can be read at:
https://projectedperspectives.wordpress.com/