The Royal Hotel

Kitty Green's drama, The Royal Hotel is a slow burn that never ignites. The film follows two young Canadian backpackers, Liv (Jessica Henwick) and Becky (Julia Garner), who take on bartending jobs at a remote pub in the Australian Outback. The pub is owned by the enigmatic Bill (Hugo Weaving), and the clientele is made up of a rough-and-tumble bunch of miners.

As the film progresses, Liv and Becky find themselves increasingly isolated and vulnerable. The men at the pub are increasingly aggressive and predatory, and the women are forced to constantly navigate their way through dangerous and uncomfortable situations.

The Royal Hotel is a well-acted film, with particularly strong performances from Henwick and Garner. However, the film's slow pace and lack of suspense eventually become its undoing. The film is more interested in creating a sense of atmosphere and dread than in telling a compelling story. Unfortunately, it never quite succeeds in either.

One of the biggest problems with The Royal Hotel is that it never really gives the audience a reason to care about the two main characters. Liv and Becky are thinly drawn characters, and their motivations are never fully explored. As a result, it's difficult to feel any real tension or suspense when they are in danger.

Another problem with the film is its pacing. The Royal Hotel is a very slow-moving film, and it often feels like nothing is happening. There are long stretches of the film where the only thing happening is Liv and Becky serving drinks to the miners. This makes the film feel very tedious and boring at times.

Finally, The Royal Hotel's climax is both unsatisfying and confusing. The film builds up to a major confrontation between Liv, Becky, and the miners, but the climax is ultimately resolved in a very anti-climactic way. The film ends with a number of unanswered questions, and the audience is left feeling confused and frustrated.

Overall, The Royal Hotel is a disappointing film. It's a well-acted film with a great atmosphere, but it's also a slow-moving and unsatisfying film. But I wouldn't call this film a thriller as it offers no thrills or much suspense for the audience. The film literally made me yawn a few times during its runtime.

The Royal Hotel sets itself up as a slow-burning psychological thriller with an interesting premise and a setting ripe for tension. The story follows two backpackers who take jobs at a remote Australian pub, where they must navigate the rowdy and often unsettling behavior of the predominantly male patrons. While the film's laid-back pacing and immersive atmosphere make for a somewhat engaging watch, it ultimately stumbles in its execution, particularly in its final act.

The biggest issue lies in how the climax squanders the film's most promising elements. The pub itself, with its claustrophobic feel and the ever-growing aggression of the drunk and unpredictable customers, seems tailor-made for a nerve-wracking escalation. However, instead of truly capitalizing on this, the film meanders, failing to push the tension to its full potential. The character of Dolly, whose presence hints at something more menacing, is severely underutilized in the final confrontation. What should have been a gripping, high-stakes moment fizzles out, leaving the resolution feeling unearned.

The ending, in particular, is frustratingly weak. Instead of a decisive or thematically satisfying conclusion, the protagonists make a baffling choice that feels more like a narrative cop-out than a natural resolution. Their decision to simply walk off with their bags, after everything that's transpired, makes for an anticlimactic and unsatisfying conclusion. It's as if the film itself is unsure how to wrap things up, resulting in a final stretch that lacks impact and cohesion.

Overall, The Royal Hotel has an intriguing setup and some effectively unsettling moments, but it ultimately misses the opportunity to fully exploit its setting and characters to deliver a truly gripping thriller. It builds toward something potentially great, only to lose its way at the finish line.

This movie is a dramatic interpretation of the documentary film "hotel coolgardie" (I reviewed that also on IMDb)

It tells the story of two backpackers travelling through Australia and they take up a job via a job agency (very common in Australia backpacking community). Only downside the hotel is in south Australia in a mining location.

They are met with a culture shock of how rough the men are and how the women have to cope with chauvinism.

The movie portrays real life in the mining towns of southern Australia where the pub is the main gathering location and where men drink far too much.

There are a few scenes where artistic license is used to make for a more dramatic movie but all in all it's a true reflection of the experiences many female travellers have.

I recommend to watch and then view "Hotel Coolgardie" to compare.

Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are traveling best friends far from home. They are on a party boat in Sydney, Australia. With money trouble, they take up jobs in a remote mining town. They are barmaids working for Billy (Hugo Weaving) who is drunk most of the time. The town is full of drunken men and not many women.

I want Hanna and Liv to be smarter for the sake of the story. I can't believe that they didn't get the Dickens joke. It's the type of joke to accentuate somebody's stupidity and the movie does exactly that. I do like Hanna's reason for not drinking. I did expect the story to go a different way. It takes a sharp turn near the end which I don't mind. I would like something more during that stormy night so the payoff could be more satisfying. It sets up a couple of things that never pays off. The color coding of the beers should be something but it goes nowhere. I thought this story had a darker back story especially with the British chicks. This movie could be something but it stops short.

Felt compelled to leave a review after watching this last night and seeing how many people left poor reviews. All i knew going into it was that it was filmed in Australia and i'm a fan of JG so would watch it regardless of much else.

Enjoyed this from start to finish. For some, movies are about what they make you feel and think. If you enjoy character studies about people, place, time or circumstances then this might be up your alley. It's not a happy movie nor a true horror which is probably how many have been left disappointed. Indie drama/thriller would better describe it.

It's bleak and scary for the fact that human nature is often something to fear more than anything pretend. I had that sick feeling of unease through throughout (which is something i really appreciate from such movies).

I would watch it again however my partner (male) watching with me was waiting for something bigger to happen and felt the end was anti climatic - 2 different views.