Russell Crowe’s The Water Diviner is an engrossing family drama that might just change your mind about Australian cinema

REVIEW: Russell Crowe’s The Water Diviner might change your mind about Australian cinema - for the better.

The Water Diviner (M)

Director: Russell Crowe (feature debut)

Starring: Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Yilmaz Erdogan, Ryan Corr, Jai Courtney.

Rating: 3.5 stars

So far away to land so close to home

IT has been a long time since Australian audiences were offered a world-class homegrown film that connects in a distinctly Australian way.

So if you have temporarily given up on Australian-made cinema, the engrossing family drama The Water Diviner might just change your mind for the better.

With the Gallipoli centenary looming in coming months, this poignant, yet uplifting ANZAC-themed affair is perfectly poised to bring this crucial event in our nation’s history to the fore of everyone’s thoughts.

Inspired by true events — albeit in a most roundabout way — The Water Diviner is very much a passion project for Russell Crowe.

CUT THE BULLS---T: Crowe’s first day as director

The Oscar-winning actor assuredly takes charge of proceedings both before and (in making his long-threatened directorial debut) behind the cameras.

Though the story told here is intrinsically linked to our enduring remembrance of those who well fell with honour in Turkey during World War 1, it is hardly a conventional reading of the Gallipoli experience.

Steady hand ... Russell Crowe makes a good fist of his directorial debut.

However, in its best stretches, Crowe’s film undoubtedly fosters a fresh appreciation of what soldiers on both sides went through during (and indeed, after) that hellish conflict.

The bulk of The Water Diviner takes place in the years immediately following the cessation of hostilities in The Great War.

ON THE SET: Behind the scenes on The Water Diviner

Crowe plays Joshua Connor, an Australian farmer still mourning the tragic loss of all three of his soldier sons on the same fateful night at Gallipoli in August 1915.

With the whereabouts of their remains still classified as unknown in late 1919, Connor decides to honour the wishes of his recently deceased wife.

This literal man on a mission travels alone to Turkey and makes tracks for the killing fields of Gallipoli, in the single-minded belief “my boys should be buried at home, beside their mother.”

With the British military still controlling the Gallipoli site as a prohibited forensic zone, Connor is brusquely informed upon arrival in Istanbul he will not be given clearance for his search.

Of course, there would not be a movie here if Connor simply took no for an answer. So with the aid of some unlikely local allies, Connor pushes on with his quest for closure on his own soulfully stubborn terms.

Ride of his life ... Russell Crowe both stars and directs The Water Diviner, shot in South Australia. Picture: Mark Brake

The most interesting and challenging aspect of The Water Diviner is the sincere effort it makes to explain and explore the unusual state of play on the ground in Turkey after World War 1.

Internal and external political turmoil is pulling the country apart throughout Connor’s odyssey, meaning in some ways (most notably involving Turkey’s clash with neighbouring Greece over the disputed region of Anatolia) he is often navigating his own path through a whole new war.

Some pundits will feel The Water Diviner is often out of its depth maintaining such a complex storyline.

However, Crowe — who obviously feels a strong connection to this tale — balances all ambitious demands made on the viewer with plenty of broadly accessible material that will resonate with all tastes.

The tender bond that Connor forms with a Turkish war widow (played by Olga Kurylenko) and her young son lightens the load in a pleasing, yet relevant manner.

Meanwhile, a number of incredibly well-shot combat sequences set in the trenches of Gallipoli drive home the dire consequences of war with great intensity and soulful insight.

Originally published as Russell Crowe’s The Water Diviner is an engrossing family drama that might just change your mind about Australian cinema