The Water Diviner review: Russell Crowe's impressive directorial debut

Director: Russell Crowe; Screenwriters: Andrew Knight, Andrew Anastasios; Starring: Russell Crowe, Jai Courtney, Olga Kurylenko, Isabel Lucas; Running time: 111 mins; Certificate: 15

Coinciding with the centenary of the Battle of the Gallipoli, where 8,709 Australians were killed during the First World War, The Water Diviner comes as a reminder that this was a tragedy on both sides. Russell Crowe boldly chooses this subject to make his feature directorial debut - picking up where Peter Weir left off with Gallipoli (1981) - and also stars as a father looking for his sons' remains after the guns are laid down in Turkey. His case isn't watertight, but he angles for tear-jerking drama and delivers.

Realism takes second place to mysticism and the foreword, claiming this story to be based on real events, is a leap given that the writers were inspired by just a single line in a letter penned by Lt-Colonel Cyril Hughes (here played by Jai Courtney) of the Imperial War Graves unit, who observed that, "One old chap managed to get here from Australia, looking for his son's grave." Crowe plays one such chap, Connor, with a doggedness that is enveloped in softer sentiments, desperately looking for peace of mind as well as what is left of his three sons.

He applies his gift for water divining to locate his boys, tapping directly into the spiritual currents that keep the film moving forward. Connor has an eerie sense of the horror that is soaked into the sands of Gallipoli and behind the camera, Crowe juxtaposes its beauty in peacetime with harrowing scenes of combat. His use of sound, too, brings home the indignity of a slow, agonising death on the battlefield, with notions of glory being only for the living, to try and make sense of it all. Inevitably, Connor has lost his way, regretting the day he allowed his sons to join the Anzacs, thinking the cause was just.

Crowe presses emotional buttons and he's clearly learned a thing or two from old cohort Ridley Scott - particularly in arresting scenes of a fiery red sandstorm

Connor's search unravels everything he used to believe and while Crowe gives a subtle performance, the plot forces him in obvious directions. Yilmaz Erdogan is his guide through the political and geographical maze as Major Hasan, a man indirectly responsible for killing his sons and who Connor initially aims to throttle. Instead, a friendship evolves, but it seems largely based on the filmmakers' desire to concede a debt to Turkey for having invaded their territory - a point made explicit, more than once. Of course, Australia paid in blood, but Crowe is quick to wash Hasan's hands of it and the Major, overall, is painted as rather too saintly considering that he, too, followed orders.

Weaved in with this angst is a discreet romance between Connor and Olga Kurylenko as a steely yet vulnerable local woman, a war widow housed by her brother-in-law (Steve Bastoni) at a hotel in Constantinople (now, Istanbul). It's a contrivance though not a distraction from the plot as the relationship gives Connor a window into the Turkish understanding of honour, respect and family values and her cute little boy (Dylan Georgiades), in all his innocence, is a much-needed tonic.

Crowe presses emotional buttons and he's clearly learned a thing or two from old cohort Ridley Scott - particularly in arresting scenes of a fiery red sandstorm. He has taken some easy shortcuts, but his future in directing looks bright as the Anatolian sunrise.