Ray Lawrence's Jindabyne is as haunting as motion pictures get, and hasn't left my thoughts since I saw it in a small independently run cinema some ten years ago. When a film is set in Australia, you know right of the bat it's going to have an eerie, striking story to tell. It's a vast, lonely place in areas, full of secrets and unexplored areas. Gabriel Byrne finds himself in a tricky situation of his own doing, playing an Irishman living in a small, isolated fishing village deep in the mountains. While on an expedition with his mates, he comes across something harrowing along a desolate stretch of river: the body of a murdered aboriginal girl. Here's where he makes a fatal mistake.. instead of reporting it instantly, he continues over the weekend with his trip, waits until he's back in town and then notifies the authorities, leaving her right there in the water. Once the details emerge, this causes a royal nightmare of controversy, racial tension and upset, including his wife (Laura Linney) who is horrified by the borderline inaction on his part. Was he wrong? Definitely. These snap decisions during times of great stress are common though, reactionary function not always falling into the place of logic, resulting in a mess such as this. Now as you can tell by my review, most of the film focuses on his actions and their repercussions, not so much on who killed the girl, or why. We see her in an unnerving prologue on some faraway highway, lured to a rest stop by a mysterious trucker, and then we see her alive no more. The trucker appears again throughout the film on the fringes of the main story, but never are we given clarification or catharsis to the murder side of the plot. That to me is an ultimate mood setter and thorn in the side of resolution. The cumulative result of her being found is simply an unrest hanging over the region like a blanket of uncertainty, matters only clouded further by Byrne and the storm he created by not acting right off the bat. Uncomfortable viewing, but beautifully made and not a film one soon forgets after viewing.

The acting of Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney (who play a married couple) is extremely good. The actual film is O.K., but one has to ask why it did so poorly...particularly in America. The answer (I believe) is the case of the missing scene. When four men find a young ladies dead body during a fishing expedition, they just go ahead with their fishing. No communication, no debate about what would be the correct course of action--nothing.! It is true however, that some Aussie "blokes" would just carry on with their watery activity. Whatever--I am sure this--and some other typically Aussie bloke activities may have confused the global audience. Anyway this movie has a spooky atmosphere from start to finish--like there is some impending doom on the horizon. It has the power to unsettle the viewer. There are some rather ridiculous interactions between Aboriginals and whites, but generally its an effective drama / murder story.

Forget that this film has too many metaphors and undeveloped subplots. Yes, it's flawed. But it effectively conveys the feeling of guilt and human powerlessness to the viewer. Perhaps the biggest flaw in the movie lies in the two children's relationship (Tom and Caylin-Calandria). It's muddy and a bit far-fetched. But the rest of the film works brilliantly and, of course, some great acting by Byrne and Linney don't hurt the cause. The cinematography is also top-notch. That so much is unresolved is also the point of the film - life doesn't give us the answers and we have to face the consequences of our actions.

This film promises so much - the premise raises all sorts of interesting issues - I was captivated...initially. Somehow the film becomes a sort of Billy Jack for the noughties.The director is clever enough to put his messages in the mouths of likable country types but they are unmistakably the words of odious, self-obsessed, antidepressant addicted bores. These characters don't exist in Jindabyne or any country town. It's didactic in a way that makes you feel as if you're being preached at for 90 minutes but that's not the worst of it. Nothing rings true. The characters are just ciphers.The final fifteen minutes would have been unforgivable if they appeared in a student film.