Afternoon:
10°c
Nick Curtis's rating
Too much tragedy for one small town
By
Nick Curtis
24 May 2007
Australian Ray Lawrence's dip into the tensions that lurk beneath everyday lives, adapted from a Raymond Carver short story, has superficial similarities to the director's 2001 murder-mystery hit, Lantana, but is rather more sombre, thoughtful and, alas, ponderous.
Garage-owner Stewart (Gabriel Byrne), out for a weekend's fishing with three male, white friends (wives, girlfriends and mobile phones not allowed) finds the raped and murdered body of an Aborigine girl in the river. After some anguished discussion, they tether her in the shallows, go back to catching fish and report the discovery when they get home.
This callous decision splits the town of Jindabyne down angry racial lines and opens up the guts of the couples involved as surely and horribly as a fishknife.
When Stewart's wife, Claire (Laura Linney), expresses her uncomprehending revulsion at his actions, he unleashes years of unspoken frustration on her, and cruel resentments over her behaviour after the birth of their son.
The acting by both Byrne and Linney is nicely understated, she putting a world of confused hurt in her eyes, he fuming with suppressed anger and a repressed mid-life crisis.
Lawrence shot wherever possible with natural light so the whole film looks realistically drab and washed out. Jindabyne, though, is a town squatting above an earlier, drowned settlement, flooded by a dam in the name of progress: a heavy-handed metaphor if ever I saw one. And the murderer lurks around the corners of the story, like a red herring or, worse, an irrelevance.
On one level, this is a film about the inability of any of us, regardless of gender, to communicate, and about getting beyond that, getting by. On another level, it's about recondite sexual and racial attitudes in Australia.
You don't need to care about the latter to enjoy it, but you do need to care about the former. And, though it pains me to say it, Jindabyne is also about 30 minutes too long. Sad that such a deft and succinct short story should become such an attenuated, hard-going film.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (1)
I do agree with the above review that the film is about 30 mins too long. But that said, it is consistently interesting and gripping. All actors are utterly convincing and you do care for them. It is a very good description of another way of life deep in the remoteness of Australia. The tensions between the races are well observed and not overblown. A movie definitely worth seeing and enjoyable if not 'major'.
- Josephine, London, 02/06/2007 13:05
Report abuse
