Jindabyne [2007] [DVD]

The reviews' extracts on the DVD box say words such as "thrilling", "gripping" and soundbite words to that effect. I have to say having read about it and the cast list, made me think I couldn't go wrong by taking the risk and buying it on DVD, especially as it was not expensive when I bought it. Well luckily, the advantage of price made the disappointment and bafflement that followed at the end of the movie more acceptable. I won't bother going too much into the plot as it is already well described in the listing and reviews here. I will just say that it could have been much better if some element of suspense were to build and at least resolve in some way. I am not saying it needed to follow the path of a whodunit thriller (which in some ways the description of the movie and reviews in the media seem to allude to ... not sure why now having seen the film) but at least not make it so much about the Laura Linney character. The plot or perhaps the direction relied too much on her "troubles" with life and what happened with regards to her husband and his fishing friends finding the body. In some respects, the film itself seemed disrespectful and appeared to be about acting and slow deliberate and expansive cinematic experience than the way the girl dies, is found and the culprit seemingly forgotten about by the characters and police. The latter is what I found baffling and kept thinking it will come to the fore at some point and perhaps resolve in some way, but no .. the entire thing became flat and pointless by the end and quite frustrating as a movie watching experience. The culprit is seen about in the film, but the treatment of the presence and the murderous act of that person again seemed almost secondary to the problems of Laura Linney and her entourage of odd couples and out of place people. That is what I think was more disrespectful of human life, and if the screenplay was trying to make a point, we missed it completely. Baffling, but not in a good way.

Australia is really blessed with fantasitc landscape and you can see planty of the undisturbed beauty in this movie. What really did it for me though was the great acting from the two main lead. Story unfolds with a group of guys chancing upon a dead girl,and as a result of their apathy and perhaps excessively pragmatic "reaction/soultion" to the discovery, much tension and struggle arose between individuals. You can see strains to friendships, love lives and even to the self...all brought alive and made very believable through the strong performance of the actors involved. Surprisingly simple in storyline, perhaps that's what made the movie even more impactful.

I wouldn't recommend that anyone buys this for keeps. To see it for the first time is fine, but it's quite boring after a while.
Gabriel Byrne is very effective and so is Laura Linney playing his wife. They are good together, but there's not a lot to watch in it before you get tired of it and begin to fast-forward the DVD in order to see the next part - if appealing enough?