The Water Diviner
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: April 24, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeMar 30, 2015
The Water Diviner is solid and old-fashioned. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerMar 30, 2015
It’s an odd mix of "Saving Private Ryan" odyssey and romantic melodrama. It has sincerity, sensitivity and is often ravishing to look at but is let down by a chocolate box love story. Still, Crowe still might have a "Braveheart"/"Dances With Wolves" in him yet. Read full review
60
The GuardianLuke BuckmasterDec 9, 2014
A handsome crowdpleaser with a big heart. Read full review
60
VarietyEddie CockrellDec 9, 2014
An often capriciously mixed cocktail of war film and cross-cultural family melodrama, The Water Diviner marks an ambitious if emotionally manipulative directing debut for Russell Crowe. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 24, 2015
A sloggy, heartfelt piece of quasi-magical realist storytelling. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 26, 2015
If only Crowe brought the same subtlety to his direction that he brings to his performance. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzApr 24, 2015
The film's fuzzy mystical undertones are irksome as well. They seem less aligned with 19th century representations of Christian or Muslim spirituality than with fond childhood memories of "Star Wars." Read full review
50
Portland OregonianJeff BakerApr 23, 2015
Crowe is a commanding lead actor who could have made it into something special if he'd stayed out of his own way. Maybe he should have stayed home. You should. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerApr 23, 2015
But just as Anzac troops had quite a go of it in Gallipoli, Crowe (who also stars as the doggedly bereaved father and exceptional well-digger here) is in tough with critic-historians aghast at The Water Diviner’s pro-Turkish slant. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 23, 2015
Crowe's feature directorial debut, The Water Diviner, stems from an honest impulse to dramatize ordinary people who honor their dead. Yet the results are narratively dishonest and emotionally a little cheap. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 23, 2015
Crowe's performance is the best thing about the ambitious historical drama, which takes some artistic liberties. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 23, 2015
Crowe clearly seeks to return to classic storytelling values with this sweeping-yet-intimate, serious-yet-swashbuckling, hither-yet-thither picaresque; that he succeeds only part of the time shouldn’t detract from the worthiness of his mission. Read full review
50
Village VoiceNick SchagerApr 23, 2015
Crowe's visual framing and dramatic staging are as assured as his compelling lead performance. Yet as his story becomes weighed down by issues of cross-cultural understanding, forgiveness, and second chances...the film comes to feel like a slight, straightforward tale distended to tedious lengths. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyApr 22, 2015
His (Crowe) movie is a male weepie, slickly lit, but clearly the work of an amateur. Its emotional thrust — the search — is made limp by indiscriminate direction and the kind of quantity-over-quality mindset that invites tacked-on romances and dream sequences that play like dream-sequence parodies. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedApr 22, 2015
As a director, Mr. Crowe’s camera meanders all over the place; as an actor, he mumbles and growls his way through the carnage like it was nothing more important than a re-make of Gladiator, filmed on old sets from Gene Autry westerns. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMatt BrennanApr 19, 2015
In straining for the profound, the film ultimately loses its way in a veritable no-man's land of ill-conceived stylistic choices and narrative switchbacks. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 30, 2015
Despite the incongruous romance and abrupt action beats, Crowe gives a likable, sympathetic performance. But it all starts to dry up before our eyes. Emotions feel false or melodramatic, flashbacks are drawn out and coincidences and connections are forced. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenApr 23, 2015
It's an unsurprisingly ambitious movie from the notoriously, proudly headstrong Crowe, which makes it such a disappointment that it feels so blandly earnest and unexpectedly hesitant, with none of the unnerving conviction the actor often brings even to lightweight promotional appearances. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovApr 22, 2015
A far more profound and moving film about this particularly Aussie/Kiwi campaign (and one that will probably never be topped) is Peter Weir’s devastating Gallipoli, starring a very young Mel Gibson. Given the choice, I’ll take that over Crowe’s earnest bombast any day. Read full review
More From This Movie

50 Critic Reviews

6.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL