Jindabyne, Australie

I recently saw Jindabyne in Cannes and it is a brilliant movie. Thanks to a wonderful cast and Ray Lawrence the script comes alive on the screen.

Four fishing buddies find a dead girl in the river. They don't report their find until a few days later. This causes anger and disappointment from their families and the rest of the town; reactions they don't seem capable of understanding.

Byrne and Linney, especially, turn every line and every second into an intense moment. They're human beings, and it shows. You understand why their characters act like they do, but you don't always accept it.

Jindabyne is in the southeast corner of New South Wales, Australia. A disturbed man kills a young aboriginal woman. Stewart Kane (Gabriel Byrne) and Claire (Laura Linney) have issues in their marriage. Stewart goes on a fishing trip with his friends Carl, Rocco, and Billy. Stewart finds the dead woman's body near their campsite. The men decide to continue fishing for the rest of the weekend.

The movie is trying to include a lot of stuff. The best that I can distill this into is a moral decay and callousness. Stewart and Claire are struggling with a loss that has sapped their joy. She discovers that she's pregnant. The crazy man ranting about electricity just adds to the generalized sense of unease along with the constant haunting music. It starts as an eerie murder mystery. If there is any scene that could galvanize the entire movie, it is Stewart discovering the body. The movie needs to spend more time with the four men discussing what to do. This movie needs clarity. The characters leave a lot unsaid which is frustrating. It's also a missed opportunity. Later, the movie tries to play the race card. In order for that to work, it needs to be set up better. For non-locals, it can come out of nowhere. This movie needs to concentrate on the primary issue and focus on it. Maybe the movie should start with the fishing trip first. It also brings back the crazy man which leaves the movie ending unsatisfying. This movie has a lot to say. It may be too much.

In the Australian town of Jindabyne, the former race champion Stewart Kane (Gabriel Byrne) works in a gas station with his partners and friends Carl (John Howard), Rocco (Stelios Yiakmis) and Billy (Simon Stone). His impassionate marriage with the unstable Claire (Laura Linney) has an unresolved issue since Claire left him when their son Tom (Sean Rees-Wemyss) was born. The great passion of Stewart is fishing and he organizes a weekend fishing trip in a remote river with his three great friends. On Friday afternoon, they park the car and hike and camp in the spot; while fishing, Stewart finds the naked dead body of an aboriginal young woman floating on the cold water. Stewart ties the leg of the woman to an arbor and they spend the weekend fishing. On Sunday afternoon, they return to the parking area and report their finding to the police. When the press releases the information, their public and private lives are deeply affected and the disturbed Claire questions Stewart's attitude while trying to help and apologize with the family of the dead aborigine.

"Jindabyne" has a storyline of great potential, with a morbid and polemic study of moral aspects of human (and consequently flawed) characters. Unfortunately the screenplay is not good and looses the focus of the main storyline entwined with many parallel and unresolved plots of supporting characters. Why Caylin-Calandria has such weird and morbid behavior? (It seems that because of the death of her mother, but it is never clear). The character of the old man that killed the aborigine is not developed. Why Claire became dysfunctional with the birth of her son? Why Stewart is still married with Claire? The attitude of Claire against her husband is annoying and in Brazil we have a saying that states "with a friend (or in this case wife) like that, Stewart does not need enemies". Anyway, the locations in Australia are stunning, the cast has great acting and it is worth watching this movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Jindabyne is a profound art house crime/thriller/drama set entirely in an the isolated Australian town of Jindabyne, starring Laura Linney (Love Actually, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and Gabriel Byrne (Spider).

An Irishman (Bryne), living in Australia with his American wife (Linney), is on an annual fishing trip, with four friends, when they come across the murdered body of a young Aboriginal woman (Tatea Reilly). Having looked forward to their trip for so long, the friends decide to leave the woman alone and report her to the police once their trip is over. Much to the disgrace of their wives, the community and the Aboriginal tribe.

I'm going to try and review this without giving it all away, but this is another very interesting and unusual thriller in so many ways. For a start, the majority of the film focuses on Linney and Byrne's marriage and the young girl's murder acts as a sort of subplot. Secondly, the director, Ray Lawrence (who has only directed two other films in the last 22 years), filmed all of it in natural light IE no fake lighting was used throughout.

The script by Beatrix Christian, adapted from the short novel 'So Much Water So Close to Home', on which the film is based, is also written in an unusual way. For instance,, the film is chronologically told, yet none of the scenes are linked – nearly all of the scenes (at least in the first half) are random anecdotes of Linney and Bryne's family life. One criticisms I'd give the script would be that although it is obvious Bryne is Irish and Linney is American, it is not explained as to why they are in Australia. Another criticism, in general, is that although we are supposed to believe that the men are so desperate to fish – they are even willing to ignore a dead woman's body – this is not emphasized enough in the acting, script of direction. Because of this, I didn't sympathize with Bryne's character as much as I could have done.

Laura Linney and Ed Byrne are pretty much the only two actors who are recognizable to international audiences, out of the very large cast. Both are brilliant in their roles, particularly Linney proving once again she is one of Hollywood's more overlooked actresses.

The film is worth seeing for so many reasons: brilliant acting from the entire ensemble cast, it's intriguing direction, unusual storyline and its accurate insight into the Aboriginal religious practices.

This is a 'typical' Ray Lawrence film. Similar in its dark view of the world, to his earlier 'Lantana'. The same slow, deliberate, menacing pace, drawing out evil in every corner ("shades of David Lynch's Twin Peaks" here). Our good ol' boy Aussies (one a transplanted Irish), on a weekend trout fishing trip away from their wives, 'park' the corpse of a murdered woman they discover floating in their stream. They continue with their fishing, not reporting the find until leaving the site - for which they are intensively and unremittingly attacked by all and sundry on their return. The fact that the dead woman is an Australian Aboriginal person adds to the 'political' impact of their offense. Through all this, the real serial killer (who we see from the first scene) hovers menacingly nearby.

An interesting, if somewhat cynical, view of the highly charged inter-racial atmosphere in the Australian community: white guilt and 'political correctness'. Who are the real villains here? Our 'politically incorrect' (and morally vacuous) protagonists? Or the murderer? Accoring to Lawrence, the former, apparently.

Taught and tense throughout, the film lacks a real resolution, opting instead for a rather 'weak' ending through the redemption of the fishers.