The decision a group of men make on a fishing trip has far reaching effects in this acclaimed drama.
From watching the opening few minutes of the Australian made "Jindabyne", Ray Lawrence's third directorial work, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is another attempt to screen a rather tired genre: serial killer mystery. Fifteen minutes in, however, you would realise that this is far from the truth. This isn't a film about a depraved killer's sickening acts of sex and violence on young women. This is a thoughtful, rounded meditation of how death can affect people, and the choices we make because of it. An in-depth analysis of this theme follows when a group of fishermen discover a body of a young woman floating in a river. Instead of reporting the body right away, they decide to tie it up and carry on with their expedition. On their return to the main town, they find themselves shunned by their wives and neighbours. Why didn't they call the police when they found the body? Why did they wait days later before you notified anyone? How could they do such a selfish thing? These question press for answers from both the characters onscreen and the audience watching.
A wife of one of the fishermen, Claire (brought to life by a career topping performance by Laura Linney) is deeply troubled by her husband's actions, and makes bold moves to paper over the wound that this act of disregard has inflicted on the local community.
We know who the killer is from the outset. We are not invited to play a "did the butler do it?" guessing game. Instead, with the controlled use of slowly evolving character development, we are shown an example of how powerful a medium such as film can really be. Using a big name like Linney could hinder rather than help an independent film such as this, but with pure skill she becomes a knotted-rope of a person, not sure where her loyalty to her husband ends and her own feelings of responsibility begin. Within this feast of beautifully observed emotion, some subplots take route, which could be the film's one and only mistake, diverting the attention away from the more important voices of the narrative. However, this is a small criticism on a film that can deliver more than just an evening's entertainment. What starts off as a story about a careless act of selfishness, it delicately escalates into a rather intellectual but wholly compelling reflection on actions and motives. And, being careful not to spoil anything, it features one of the best endings to a film I have ever seen.
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Gabriel Byrne stars in this murder drama set in the Australian outback. Four friends on an annual fishing trip discover a girl's naked body. Rather than reporting the find straight away, they decide to wait until their trip is finished. On finally hearing the news, Claire Kane (Laura Linney), begins to question her relationship with her husband Stewart (Byrne), one of the four. As she tries to set things straight, Laura is caught in a moral dilemma between her marriage and the truth...
While on his annual fishing trip with friends, Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) discovers a dead woman (Tatea Reilly) floating in a mountain river. Deciding that there's nothing they can do to help her at this point, Stewart, Carl (John Howard), Rocco (Stelios Yiakmis), and Billy (Simon Stone) continue their weekend, calling the police only after they've finished fishing and come down from the mountain. When they return to their small town of Jindabyne in New South Wales, they're surprised when their families and the community treat them with anger and hostility for their selfish, callous behavior. Stewart's wife, Claire (Laura Linney), is particularly disillusioned, calling into question her entire relationship with Stewart and their young son, Tom (Sean Rees-Wemyss), who himself has been getting into dangerous situations hanging around with a slightly older, troubled girl, Caylin-Calandria (Eva Lazzaro). And tensions are even higher because the murdered woman was a member of a nearby Aboriginal community, sparking cries of racism. Inspired by the Raymond Carver short story 'So Much Water So Close To Home', JINDABYNE was written by playwright Beatrix Christian and directed with a subtle elegance by Ray Lawrence (BLISS, LANTANA). The film features gorgeous cinematography by David Williamson and outstanding performances all around. JINDABYNE touches on themes such as family, murder, abandonment, racism, faith, and redemption, but, at its heart, it's about the everyday choices people make in life--and how they live with the consequences.
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