Beautiful, poetic, and immersive

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2015)

Much will be said about this film. Whether it is a disappointment or not. I've never been huge on Inarritu. I've always felt his films take the melodrama and contrivance way too far, even if I don't hate any of his films. The first of his that I loved was Birdman, and now I can add The Revenant as his second and his most accomplished film to date. I feel like many will not take to its pacing. It's pretty much the most plot-driven Malick film that the director himself never made. Technically it's breath-taking, with really beautiful and powerful cinematography that will surely blow you away. But then again we all knew that. If there's one aspect of the film that perhaps is flawed, it is the editing. I do feel like the transitioning of scenes at times felt a little off, and because of it the film as a whole can sometimes feel disjointed. I think this, in particular, makes the film feel like it is dragging in its second act. The biggest surprise here is how strong the actual narrative and screenplay is. I didn't know much about these people, the novel, or the plot summary of the film, but I think that the screenplay does a really wonderful job of letting us into many of these characters' heads and really permeating the entire film's atmosphere with intense psychological dilemmas that really haunt the screen. For such a physical film, it's also very much an internal one, and that essentially applies to Dicaprio as well. I've always been hit or miss with him, but this is the best I've ever seen him, and I think that's because it's a role that is totally unlike so much of what he usually does. He has to physically inhabit this character completely. He surely gives it his all, and it's visible all across his face. It's a role very much not driven by dialogue, and instead it's a completely soulful performance. If he was to win an Oscar for this, then congratulations to him because he would be completely deserving. The other standout is Tom Hardy, another actor who is usually hit or miss with me but who also delivers some stunningly good work here. He's chilling, and he should definitely be in contention for an Oscar nomination.
Ultimately, this film is one that needs to be pondered more to see how it fares with time. The great thing is that, so far, I cannot recommend it enough. It's very much a humorless, miserable film, with only bad things happening to characters we care about. In that respect, similar to Inarritu's previous films, and yet none of it rang false here. It's far from perfect, it remains a daunting, exhausting, overwhelming, yet beautiful, poetic, immersive experience, and those adjectives alone make it one of the best, if not the best, films of the year.