The Revenant

Grade: B

After watching The Hateful Eight and The Revenant within a few days of each other, I’m ready to see a movie about sweaty spring breakers on the beach under the sweltering sun. These are two films that certainly make us feel the unrelenting snow and freezing cold. You might want to skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know about some of the major plot points. Reportedly “inspired by true events,” The Revenant is about a group of frontiersmen out on an expedition in the 1820s. Hugh Glass, one of the men, is brutally attacked by a bear. He is brought back to camp unable to speak, move, or do anything, when another man (Fitzgerald) murders Glass’s son right in front of him, and then leaves Glass for dead. What follows is Glass’s journey – with cuts, broken bones, and within inches of his life – to find Fitzgerald to exact revenge.

Our protagonist (Glass) is played here by Leonardo DiCaprio. He is as effective as always, but the voters in award ceremonies often confuse characters and situations with actual performances. He has and will get some nominations for this role, but most anybody could have done it just as well, and for my money, the best performance in the movie comes from Tom Hardy as Fitzgerald. This is not a remorseless, one-dimensional villain. Hardy gives us amazing layers here, and I’d love it if come January 14, he receives an Oscar nod for his troubles. The Revenant is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (Birdman, 21 Grams), but seems to be showing off an Oliver Stone inspiration here, with quick cuts to images where we’re sometimes unsure whether it’s real or a dream. I could have used a lot less of that, and wish Innaritu had stuck to what he does well. As a whole, things falter in the second half, when credibility is stretched too far for me when it comes to how close DiCaprio was to death at the beginning, how quickly he recovers, and the unbelievable setbacks he survives. I know he’s resilient, but he makes it through too darn much. However, there’s a chilling image late in the film that will stick with me forever. He makes himself the most unique bed for the night that I have ever seen. Never underestimate the power of desperation and what people would do to keep warm. Things also pick up at the end, with a refreshingly ambiguous conclusion. This is not your usual cut-and-dry revenge tale.
Grade: B