The Dry 2: Força da Natureza

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.

Not as good as the first film ...I think , mainly because the missing lady , was annoying and unpleasant , just couldn't feel anything for her ... Otherwise , not bad ...Kind of satisfied the urge I have lately to return to the old fashioned style of cinematography , when films were more about character development and acting than special effects and non stop action . This film ,definitely , achieves that : there was almost no violence or fights or car chases, or , for that matter -casual nudity or sex . That's why for me it was a pleasant reminder of the days once and for all gone ... I mean , I love some crazy action , but sometimes just want to sit quietly and enjoy a bit of a cerebral thriller )

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.

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.

A sequel to 2021's sleeper hit The Dry, Force Of Nature: The Dry 2 once again follows brooding detective Aaron Falk where after his informant (Anna Torov) gets lost in the forest on a work retreat he joins a search and rescue team to help find her. Along the way he's forced to confront more of his childhood trauma.

Unfortunately the title for this movie sets the stage for what is a pretty convoluted and muddled movie and is overall a step down in my opinion compared to the first. There are three competing storylines here, the group of women, Aaron's trauma from his past and a serial killer subplot that literally goes nowhere. All of these storylines compete for attention but in the end they all end up falling flat. Also with the exception of Eric Bana as Falk almost every other character in this movie is unlikable (with maybe the only other exception being Mortal Kombat's Sisi Stringer.) With so much going on here it's surprising how unsatisfying and bland this movie was. Five stars for Bana though who is pretty much the only reason this might be worth your time.

Jane Harper wrote a third and final Aaron Falk book that was published last year so I feel like it's inevitable that it also gets adapted to make a trilogy out of this. Hopefully it's more in line with the first movie compared to this and it can finally give Bana's Aaron Falk some sense of happiness because the amount of past and present trauma he's endured throughout both Dry movies is kind of crazy.