Force of Nature: The Dry 2

Who doesn't love a good mystery/thriller movie?

Personally I'm a big fan and have watch lists for this very genre on various streaming services to last me till the Zombie Apocalypse is over and we can all crawl out of our bunkers again and drive Mad Max style into the dusty distance.

It's kind of ironic that the sequel to "The Dry" is called "Force Of Nature: The Dry 2" when it's set in a wet forest and the biggest hindrance to a search and recovery operation is a huge storm cell.

As one of the production companies involved in the making of this project "Made Up Stories" likes to say, "Tell Me A Story".

Okay, Five women head out on a remote hiking retreat but only four return, each telling a different story.

The whistle blower/insider is missing and if they don't find her quickly, presumed dead!

There are more suspects than children at a Wiggles concert.

Detective Aaron Falk (Eric Bana: affectionately known as Poida by most Aussies) must find out what really happened before time runs out and the rains come ma.

Eric reprises his role to star alongside fresh characters in "Force of Nature" played by Anna Torv ("Newsreaders"), Deborah-Lee Furness, Jacqueline McKenzie, Richard Roxburgh and others.

Robert Connolly is back in his Director Chair and although this is not truly a sequel with no connection to the original it is the second chapter from a series of books authored by Jane Harper (who must be laughing all the way to the bank) her follow up novel to the original story "The Dry".

Honestly they should have dropped "Dry" from the title, but at least people remember that wonderful film that punched above its weight.

Filming for this movie traveled away from rural Victoria into rugged, dangerous Dandenong Ranges National Park (The Basin) in Australia in 2022, but its release was delayed by 5 months due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Unfortunately this film is not the force of nature I was hoping for after the massive success with both critics and movie goers of "The Dry".

I even burst out laughing during what was meant to be a climatic serious waterfall scene...I know I'm a sick puppy...tell my therapist.

"Force of Nature" is hobbled by a pedestrian, convoluted plot with 3 layers that gets too busy with messy results, but it does get some brownie points for beautiful cinematography, editing & haunting soundtrack.

The acting felt dialled in/paint by numbers with certain people (I'm looking at you McKenzie, who is normally great) and the script/screenplay just got lost in translation and felt wooden and predictable.

Don't even get me started on Falks backstory and history with this mountain range that tried to pull at the heart strings, but lacked the mystery of the original.

As for the "serial killer" subplot it just fizzled and fell flat like a bottle of champagne left uncorked overnight.

"Force Of Nature: The Dry 2" tried to be all "Picnic At Hanging Rock" in a 21st century woke women's retreat way and missed the mark to get lost in the forest for the trees.

5 women embark on a company team building exercise, backpacking for 3 days into the forest. However only 4 return and a search is quickly launched for the 5th, Alice, played by the excellent Anna Torv. Enter detective Falk (Eric Bana) who needs to find Alice as she has been working undercover in the company for Falk in an attempt to expose fraud by bad guy Daniel Bailey (Richard Roxburgh).

Sequel to 'The Dry', which whilst not as good as the original is still an enjoyable watch. What director Robert Connolly does is to almost seamlessly intertwine Falk's investigation with flashbacks to what the group did. In most films this is done in large chunks, but here it moves more quickly, neatly shifting from one timeline to the other merging them into one. The 5 women make for a good team playing nicely off each other, mixing truth and lies to Falk and us, with Bana solid and sincere, thinking back to backpacking in his youth which lead to a tragedy and Roxburgh, ideal as the cocky slime ball. Worth catching.

I have read 'The Dry' and 'Force of Nature' and now have seen both movies.

I believe 'Force of Nature' is a stand alone movie. The negative reviews nearly put me off seeing this one. You don't need to understand anything about 'The Dry' to understand that Aaron Falk is part of the federal police.

It was clever when going back 30 odd years, that the quality of the film was grainy.

The cinematography is beautiful and whilst some of the writing is a bit clunky, overall it's a movie worth seeing on the big screen. I enjoyed the performances by Eric Bana and Anna Torv who always deliver.

It certainly makes you aware of how easily you can get lost in bush.

An example of the inept use of a three-part structure. This is an example of a montage that is a disorderly juggling of the past and the present. The very idea of investigating economic crimes and the disappearance of a key informant is intriguing, but it is implemented and written in the worst traditions of the detective genre: not prescribed characters and, as a result, lackluster roles with superficial dialogues; stupid plot decisions justifying circumstances. The screenwriter "turns off" smartphones and forgets about the compass to justify lost tourists; tourists quarrel over the map like children, and as a result, the map floats downstream, and a girl from the group tries to fish it out of the water, flounders in the water and bruises her head. In the stream! The stream is knee deep! Just think, the girl went with the flow for a few seconds and got a head injury... how? The director did not bother to show it, just put the viewer in front of the fact.

The stupidest thing is how the group navigated on the map - without a compass, visually looking around. Are you serious? Only a schoolboy can come up with such nonsense, but the director seriously continues to confuse with the absurdity of what is happening, straining with alarming notes. I am simply amazed at how much human and material resources have been invested in this ridiculous theater of "forced losses" with empty chatter and women's screams. "Women's screams" is a directorial technique that is used wherever possible and where it is not necessary. I don't like the slang definition of "stuffy", but in this characteristic designation it corresponds to the content - it's shrill, stuffy, boring constructive junk. The director is unable to organize the acting, he does not see falsehood, does not know how to place accents, does not understand the material, and this misunderstanding is reflected in the viewer. It's a pity for Eric Ban, he has the image of an intelligent man, but in this film his virtues have dissolved into directorial incompetence.

3 out of 4 found it useful. Permanent link.

This film was gripping and unsettling. Contrary to popular opinion, I enjoyed the second one more! It delved into the realm of psychological thriller more than a drama, which the first film leaned into. This made it exciting to watch. The lush forest landscape was a stunning antithesis to the dry countryside depicted in the first movie and the performances were very believable. Sadly, there is a "but". In the way Australian films quite often go, it didn't quite hit the high mark of a jaw-dropping plot twist at the end. Rather, it flatlined. The story could have been more ambitious and punched higher by providing more twists and turns. Additionally, the film explored a number of sub-plots that weren't answered in the end or cleverly tied-off. Overall, this is worth a watch in the cinema and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.