Reviews

This is a bizarre movie. On one hand the acting is excellent and cinematography superb. The unusual choice of black and white works a treat in this outback setting with some wonderful photographic composition to set the mood.

Sadly, this is where the commendations end, for as the title suggests, the audience is left in limbo. A threadbare story basically amounts to a born again cop (Simon Baker) investigating a cold case murder of an indigenous child that with the passage of time proves unsolvable.

For reasons unexplained Baker's character is also a funtioning heroin addict who looks like Walter White. No meaningful evidence is found and everyone is reluctant to speak. There's no flashbacks to provide any clues or build any emotional attachment to the poor girl and what became of her. Notwithstanding, like Coober Pedy, a lot has probably occurred out of view, under the surface.

Therefore the pacing is achingly slow and infuriatingly no payoff is forthcoming. Ambiguity is fine, but not so much when the narrative is as sparse as the desert landscape. Ultimately this movie is one giant tease, my generous rating based solely on what was rendered from the writer's slender morsels.

The Tourist proffers a cracking start with a tense truck v car chase invoking Duel. A badly injured Irish accented man winds up in hospital with absolutely no sense of self or what transpires to be a dodgy past.

An 'endearing' (as much as annoying) trainee cop burdened by an infuriating fiancé is cast as detective. In her best intentioned naivety she is dragged into a tangled web in which the missing pieces of the first two episodes are largely explained in episode 5 when the mystery amnesia victim experiences an LSD fueled fever dream (think Twin Peaks' Agent Cooper). Indeed, stylistically, TP fans may pick up on other touch points through the series. But this is sadly no Twin Peaks by the stretch of the Stuart Highway.

Alex Dimitriades is a welcome inclusion as a crazed bad guy in an underperforming cast however The Tourist ultimately falls short of what might have been with a slightly larger budget and more accomplished acting ensemble. Worth a look but don't expect too much from this highly derivative trope which has its moments.

Jindabyne gets down to business quickly with Chris Haywood's menacing portrayal of a murdering electrician stalking his prey on a secluded dirt road along a distant plain near the Snowy Mountains.

The setting affords many stunning vistas, juxtaposed with a small town's inhabitants harbouring various skeletons in their closets.

When four fishermen friends find their pristine stream filled with juicy trout, and a lifeless body, they are faced with what would appear an obvious decision.

It's not quite the level of the Seinfeld finale where Kramer gleefully films a mugging whilst Jerry, George and Elaine make snide quips about the poor victim's body shape. But clearly, despite the lack of mobile phone or reception, the men should have respectfully done more than grab another can and rebait their hooks.

Unsurprisingly they become pariahs among the locals, with central character Stewart (Gabriele Byrne) persona non gratis in his own home. His wife Claire (Laura Linney) is appalled, her degree of righteousness cum meddling cleverly invokes some degree of sympathy for her husband amid the pile on, which sees him cop his right whack in various ways. Nor does Claire necessarily hold all the moral high ground.

That the victim is aboriginal adds a more complex layer to the story, though this aspect feels overplayed and arguably out of place by the final reel, as if the basic moral and societal questions posed by what happened wasn't enough to sustain the screenplay.

Another curiosity is the perpetrator who hides in plain sight and bobs up ominously in his yellow truck at various intervals. If he is indeed a serial killer, it seems odd the only other mysterious death in the area, mentioned in passing, was back in 1979. Even if he's new to the caper, curiously there is no exploration of his motives or back story (unlike a couple of the minor characters whose sub plots lack context in the main narrative).

All in all Jindabyne is an engaging film with an excellent cast - but with several missing or wrongly placed pieces.