Crowe's directing debut turns out to be an entertaining cinematic package

Rating: Null/10 (23 April 2015)

After a few establishing montages of a WWI scene, Crowe starts his directing debut with vertical aerial shots of the titular character going about the titular undertaking. In a series of ever so lightly surreal overlapping frames of fade-out and fade-in subjects, we see Connor (Crowe, in the lead role too in addition to directing) the protagonist and his dog walking about carefully, the former manipulating two sticks of thin wire, one held in each hand. This is set in some of the wildest and driest parts of Australia. With unwavering confidence and uncanny conviction, he finally stops at a spot, digs deep, deep, and deep until rising out of the bowels of the earth – no, not Johnny Cash's flames from the ring of fire – but an almost miraculous gush of water.
Pleased with his accomplishment, Connor returns to his farmhouse and is greeted with a smile from his wife who is cleaning a boot of one of his three sons, complaining indulgently that she doesn't understand why they are always so dirty. After dinner, domesticity oozes as the wife urges Conner to go through the nightly ritual of reading their three sons to sleep. The next thing we hear is the loving father's voice reading in the bedroom. As the camera moves into the bedroom we see three empty beds, beds that have not been slept in for quite some time. The gloomy nature of the movie finally unfolds – the three young adult sons have all gone to fight in Turkey, and were killed, all three together, in the Battle of Gallipoli. The next morning, Connor finds that his wife has drowned herself.
The remainder of the movie, set in Turkey (mostly Istanbul), can be categorized as what my summary line intimated: an entertaining cinematic package. The tone is initially gloomy, tracing Connor's effort to acquire permission from hopelessly bureaucratic bodies to get into the military zone to look for the remains (perhaps just a skull) of his sons to bring home to Australia for a decent burial. Romance is offered in rapport with a young Turkish widow Ayshe who runs the hotel in Istanbul where he stays (a stunningly lovely Olga Kurylenko), a relationship that follows an often-seen trajectory of starting with animosity but gradually warming towards mutual empathy. Another often-seen relationship comes as the man-and-kid bonding with Ayshe's somewhat cheeky but generally adorable son. When Connor finally succeeds in getting into the military zone, we get a feel of the ever elusive nature of political alliances: Australia and Turkey, enemies only so recently, are now allies against Greece. Two important characters emerge from this new addition to the dramatic arena. One is a British colonel played by Jai Courtney. You would perhaps remember him as John McClane's (or you can call him Bruce Willis) son in "A good day to die hard". The other, an even more important role, is a Turkish Major played by an excellent Yilmaz Erdogen. The pace picks up when after finding of remains of two of the sons, a gleam of hope breaks out that the third one may still be alive. High adventure ensues, with a touch of melodrama that is not unwelcome, after the somber mood that has dominated the movie for the most part.
I am not going to repeat the summary line again but would just add that the movie is shot in an old-fashion style which is a delight to watch.