Jindabyne

I was really looking forward to this film since I'm a big fan of Australian cinema and because the director's previous thriller, Lantana, was so good, but I came away disappointed. It was well-acted and the scenery (in the Kosciusko National Park) was fantastic but it just didn't quite hang together. It seemed as if the director hadn't quite decided what kind of film he wanted to make.

It's the story of four men who go on a fishing trip and find a murdered woman's body but finish their fishing before reporting the find to the police. The film spends quite a bit of time examining the reactions of the police, the townsfolk and the men's families to this behaviour. An extra dimension is added because the woman is an aboriginal, but although there is a suggestion of a new acceptance of some aspects aboriginal culture by the white australians at the end of the film it seems like this is an add-on rather than the central theme. Confusing the issue of central theme further is the film's beginning where we see the perpetrator of the murder set up the crime and its all very tense and atmospheric and we think we're in for a real thriller. And then we get sidetracked off to the fishing trip and its participants which is all very prosaic apart from some odd spooky moments in the bush. And the murderer crops up again every now and again but there's no suggestion of him being apprehended.

Another large chunk of the film is spent examing the mental state of the wife of one of the fishermen, who had severe postnatal depression after the birth of her first child and she's in the process of trying to come to terms with the fact that she's pregnant again.

As you can gather there's probably enough fodder for several films here, and that's part of the problem.

Ian's Rating: 2/5
Anne's Rating: 2/5