Thumbs up for ‘The Navigator’

Press, 26 April 1989, Page 24

Thumbs up for ‘The Navigator’

NZPA Washington Vincent Ward’s "The Navigator” is praised in the latest edition of “Newsweek” magazine in the United States. “ ‘The Navigator’ announces itself as the work of a fresh and unusual talent,” wrote the film critic, David Ansen, describing Ward as “a filmmaker with a big future.” “Nothing he does in this haunting, original film is run-of-the-mill.” Ansen said Ward “has an uncanny gift of photographing the present through medieval eyes, so that the objects we take for granted become magical and strange.” Of the film, the critic said there was humour in Ward’s vision but he was not playing the timetravel motif for jokes. “ ‘The Navigator’ is a tense fable about faith, community and sacrifice. Though its visual style is very sophisticated, it feels medieval.

“Ward is attempting to show the parallels between the two distinct centuries, but .he may have over-reached when he explicitly equates the Black Death and A.1.D.5.” Ansen said “The Navigator” was “a bit too cryptic to be fully satisfying” and emotionally it left the viewer “feeling oddly suspended.” He also takes a look at a new film by an Australian director, Phillip Noyce, “Dead Calm,” starring the New Zealand actor, Sam Neill, and comes away unimpressed with what is “just a waterlogged damsel-in-distress movie.” “Noyce’s stylishness keeps this vehicle afloat but his portentousness raises expectations he can’t deliver. “ ‘Dead Calm’ will buy him a ticket into the mainstream; let’s hope he uses it next time to make a movie that’s about something/’ Ansen said.