Those who revelled in the dark suspense of Lantana will be thrilled with Ray Lawrence’s atmospheric follow-up. Trudging through an emotional quagmire, Jindabyne plays gumshoe with human misery. It opens in the same forbidding landscape as Wolf Creek as a young aboriginal woman is pounced on by a sexual predator. Her body is dumped in a nearby stream and washes up where four friends, including Gabriel Byrne’s Stewart are enjoying a fishing trip. Upset, but determined not to ruin their entire weekend, they tether the body and wait until the Monday to report the incident. All hell soon breaks loose.
If this sounds familiar that’s because it’s drawn from one of the Raymond Carver stories used in Short Cuts. Lawrence, however, is more faithful to the original blue-collar milieu and the author’s penchant for misery. Stewart’s wife Claire (Linney) is recovering from a nervous breakdown. Her young son has just sacrificed the school pet. The resident Irish mother-in-law is a battleaxe. Australian racial politics add further woes.
Brilliantly performed and deceptively complex, it’s just a shame the film is such heavy weather. If you’re going to put an audience through such an ordeal, an emotional payoff is in order.
123mins. Cert 15a. Opens May 25