Jindabyne

This film is about a group of 4 men who discovers a dead body during a fishing trip. They continue fishing instead of reporting it to the police. This sparks outrage in the village, and the 4 men have to deal with the aftermath.

The character development is excellent. Each character is unique and different. Laura Linney deals with the tragedy by doing good deeds to redeem herself, while Gabriel Byrne deals with it by denial. The little girl, with an unfortunately unusual name, is provocatively antisocial. Billy is the histrionic one. Each character is different from another, and the interaction of them in the film is portrayed beautifully and convincingly in the film.

Laura Linney does the best job in the film. She is so convincing in her genuine attempt to redeem her husband's wrongdoings. The frustration that results from her husband's denial is painfully portrayed. The scene where she throws the vase at the ground is also a memorable display of emotion.

A comment says the film is dull. I am afraid I do not agree. This film is about the portrayal of different personalities when morality is in danger. The characters are so intriguing and complex, that just this alone makes viewing worthwhile.

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

With no fault to the actors (they all put on great performances), the overall story was not very well executed. The movie opens with a great zinger: a crazy old guy forces a young Aborigine girl's car off the road. But then, we're forced to endure 40 minutes of character development with an entirely new group of characters ... and we don't know why until the 40 minutes are up. It turns out that they are the ones who eventually discover the girl's body ... and the story progresses from there.

While the story does pick up at that point, it really goes nowhere. After 2 hours, I asked myself: was there a point to this, or was it just to see the characters struggle with accusations of racism and stupidity of how they handled the discovery? The story was ultimately unsatisfying and felt unfinished. While it is well acted, there's not a strong enough backbone in the film to warrant recommending it.

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.

A fishing trip gone bad is one way of looking at JINDABYNE, but then you would miss the whole mystery of this film and how it examines the lives of others in a small Australian town, which on the surface may seem perfect. But in JINDABYNE you soon learn that beneath the ripples of the lake lie other factors which swirl to the surface and create a fascinating film and story. The wind whipping through the trees and the power lines that dot the hills make for a perfect background for this film.

Laura Linney, once and again, and Gabriel Byrne are two superb actors that make JINDABYNE come alive with strong performances, as well as from a seasoned cast. JINDABYNE offers us a film of human tragedy, as seen from both sides of the racial coin, and is a very timely film with all the evils that go on within today's global stage. In Ms. Linney, her face always mirrors a million emotions, and Mr. Byrne is the perfect foil for a marriage with issues. The final scenes are powerful and leave you with a question of, "what now might Jindabyne be in the near future?" However, with that said, I felt the film could have been edited a bit more tightly, and not taken so long with the development of characters and the build up to the final conclusion. But in watching the face of Laura Linney and her inner expressions, along with the writing, one can forgive the length of the film.