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"Director: JC Chandor; Screenwriter: JC Chandor; Starring: Robert Redford; Running time: 106 mins; Certificate: 12A  The BFI London Film Festival may divide itself up into differing thematic strands, but the overriding idea behind this year&amp;#039;s event appears to be endurance. After the nerve-shredding Captain Phillips and Gravity comes All Is Lost, a near dialogue-free film about a man battling the sea (it sits in LFF&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Thrill&amp;#039; section, in case you&amp;#039;re wondering). That man, &amp;quot;our man&amp;quot;, is Robert Redford. He&amp;#039;s woken one morning to find his yacht breached by a shipping container and taking on water. It&amp;#039;s quickly patched up but greater challenges lie in store as his boat gets battered by a storm that leads him to abandon ship in favour of an inflatable life raft. Redford delivers a powerful performance, one heightened due to the star&amp;#039;s glittering screen career and the bond an audience already has with him. He projects a quiet dignity as his unnamed sailor attempts to navigate into the Indian Ocean&amp;#039;s shipping lane in the hope of being rescued.  Sitting at the helm is JC Chandor, whose directorial debut Margin Call was a dense, talk-heavy look at Wall Street&amp;#039;s 2008 financial meltdown. All Is Lost is a different beast, although both movies feature men fighting to survive in dangerous waters. Redford&amp;#039;s mariner speaks of &amp;quot;soul and body&amp;quot; being all that remains of him in the opening voiceover, and this is an apt description of the film itself. There&amp;#039;s no backstory, no whys or hows, or cutaways to worried family back home. This is both a strength and weakness to Chandor&amp;#039;s tale. On the one hand it highlights Redford&amp;#039;s understated performance and the film&amp;#039;s technical achievements; sound design in particular, all creaking hulls, lapping waves and deafening storms, is superb. On the other it lessens the emotional pay-off for for Redford&amp;#039;s character. What does he have to live for, if anything? We never find out, although the opening voiceover suggests a man who carries regret. All Is Lost simply is what it is. A visually striking man versus nature story about enduring when the elements are conspiring against you. It&amp;#039;ll also leave you with something to debate when the end credits roll, but make sure you take the trip to see these on the big screen. TV won&amp;#039;t do this film justice. Photo gallery - BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express in pictures:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/bfi-london-film-festival/review/a523175/all-is-lost-review-bfi-london-film-festival-2013/>