A metallic shape emerging from a still body of water. In voiceover, a man bids farewell to his family and says, “Here everything is lost except body and soul. » Superimposed, an indication of location: “Off the Strait of Sumatra. »
What follows is the story of the eight days preceding the writing of this nautical will. You can count the number of words spoken on the fingers of one hand. The number of protagonists requires even less effort: one. He is an American (we know this, from the accent with which he said the few lines of the prologue), necessarily rich, since he sails alone on his sailboat; already old, since he has the features of Robert Redford.
The first sequence after the prologue shows a rude awakening: his boat, the Virginia-Jean, has been rammed by the corner of a container fallen from a cargo ship. Rushing onto the deck, the man sees cheap shoes falling out of the large metal box. The breach is at the waterline and the cabin, which resembled the apartment of a prosperous bachelor, soon becomes a natural disaster zone, an expanse of water in which float memories of comfort and ‘a social status that has just gone overboard.
Man forced into action
The symbolic dimension of the moment is obvious: the Western capitalist has just been rammed by one of the essential weapons of globalization, the container. But J. C. Chandor, who had already impressed with his analytical skills with his stock market drama, Margin Call (2012), does not dwell on this aspect of the shipwreck. What interests him is filming a man forced into action. We can clearly see that this anonymous hero is used to it. The first decisions he makes (the way, for example, in which he releases his boat from the container) are models of speed and efficiency.
The sea is not the type to be impressed by these qualities. The collision is followed by squalls and damage of all kinds. Each time a little more worn, a little more tired, the solitary sailor tries to ward off adversity, with, each time, a little less ingenuity, a little more bad luck, a little more despair.
Chandor films his character focusing especially on his gestures, his ways of doing things. Robert Redford is not the most expressive of actors, but he works with immense precision and physical commitment which perfectly meet the needs of the role. It is difficult to expand further on this story, made up of an impeccable assembly of small triumphs and great defeats. Perhaps because J. C. Chandor set his story in the Indian Ocean, perhaps also because Redford knows how to be magnificent in the ordeal, we often think of Joseph Conrad, of his heroes who find meaning and meaning at sea. limits of their existence.
