The Navigators

There is a useful directness to The Navigators, a comedy shaped by Ken Loach with a firm understanding of its audience. In The Navigators, Dean Andrews provides the anchor while Thomas Craig introduces a contrasting energy. Without revealing later complications, The Navigators opens from this situation: Five Yorkshiremen try to survive after the British Rail is bought out by a private company. The resulting its 1h 36m running time feels most convincing whenever The Navigators trusts behaviour more than explanation.

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The plot of The Navigators is built around the uneasy relationship between Five Yorkshiremen and British Rail. For Dean Andrews, that relationship gives The Navigators an emotional objective stronger than simple forward motion. The screenplay associated with Rob Dawber lets the central character reshape the direction of The Navigators in stages. Although the treatment of an important relationship could be sharper, The Navigators never entirely loses the thread established at the beginning.

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The most useful technical choice in The Navigators is comic timing built around character, because it helps the audience understand both space and mood. Alta Films frames The Navigators through comic timing built around character without letting surface finish replace character. Drawing on its United Kingdom background, The Navigators uses well judged reactions to give familiar material a more specific texture. Cinematography, sound and editing meet effectively in The Navigators whenever a sequence must feel large without losing its human scale.

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Beneath its plot, The Navigators is most interested in embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. That concern becomes visible through Dean Andrews, whose choices allow The Navigators to explore an idea without stopping for a speech. Five Yorkshiremen gives the themes of The Navigators a concrete dramatic form rather than leaving them abstract. The emotional value of The Navigators grows whenever Ken Loach trusts the audience to connect behaviour with the larger question.

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What keeps The Navigators emotionally readable is Dean Andrews, whose choices establish a consistent point of view. In scenes with Thomas Craig, The Navigators gains tension from two performers refusing to produce the same kind of energy. Joe Duttine contributes a separate rhythm to The Navigators and helps the supporting material feel less purely functional. The direction by Ken Loach gives the cast of The Navigators room to connect the quieter beats with the larger ones.

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Ken Loach gives The Navigators a directorial line that is clear enough to keep the emotional line visible from its opening promise to its final movement. The staging of The Navigators is strongest when Ken Loach allows motivation to determine pace instead of reversing that priority. Viewed as a complete piece, The Navigators confirms that its modest pleasures remain genuine across most of the running time. A tighter version of The Navigators would address how a few supporting ideas remain thinner than the central one, yet the surrounding work remains persuasive.

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For comedy fans who respond to personality and timing, The Navigators is ultimately a solid choice for the right audience. Its most persuasive combination in The Navigators brings Dean Andrews together with well judged reactions under the direction of Ken Loach. The fact that a few supporting ideas remain thinner than the central one prevents The Navigators from being entirely seamless. Even with that reservation, The Navigators has a clear point of view and enough genuine feeling to justify the journey.