The Revenant

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s best movie since Babel, The Revenant tells the gritty story of a frontiersman (Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass) who’s left for dead by a rival (Tom Hardy’s John) and must fend for himself in the increasingly harsh wilderness. It’s clear immediately that filmmaker González Iñárritu isn’t looking to take a conventional approach to the admittedly familiar material, as The Revenant has been infused with an intense, in-your-face visual sensibility that persists for the duration of the movie’s 156 minute running time. The film’s incredibly visceral atmosphere is established right from the get-go with a thrilling battle sequence, with the remainder of the unabashedly episodic story detailing Hugh’s ongoing efforts at heading to safety. There’s little doubt that The Revenant, as a result, does suffer from a decidedly uneven midsection, as González Iñárritu and scripter Mark L. Smith offer up a narrative that occasionally dwells a little too deeply on the minutia of Hugh’s ordeal – with the movie containing many long, dialogue-free stretches in which the central character makes his way across the punishing landscape. The consistently watchable vibe, then, is due both to González Iñárritu’s uncompromising sensibilities and to DiCaprio’s thoroughly electrifying turn as the grizzled protagonist, with, in terms of the latter, the actor stepping into the shoes of his beleaguered character to a degree that’s nothing short of captivating (ie DiCaprio has never been quite this commanding and compelling before). And although the film does drag in the buildup to its climax, The Revenant closes with an absolutely spellbinding (and impressively brutal) stretch that ensures it ends on a far more positive note than one might’ve anticipated – and yet it’s ultimately clear that the film could (and should) have been much, much shorter.

*** out of ****