I haven't seen such a beautiful movie in a while, it's tragic and it's romantic. This movie is haunting, there are some truly poignant moments of a man having to deal with and let go of a lost love. The location is beautiful, the acting is great, the cinematography and the story really takes you on a journey. It's subtle and real. It left a good impression on me. It's a superb Australian film. Credit goes to the beautiful Helena Bonham Carter who managed to pull off a convincing Australian accent! The music is good too, it really creates the mood. The dancing in the water scene was so romantic. It makes you think about the relationships you have with other people. See it if you haven't all ready!

What is this movie about? It's mostly a sentimental flashback to a time when the protagonist was a teenager and let his crippled girlfriend drown. That's not enough though: we see him upset at the death of his mom; we see how cold and distant his dad is; we see him pull a calf out of the mom with a rope.We mostly see the adult thinking back to his adolescence and the relationship he had with a girl in braces. He thinks much about this. To help him think, windshield wipers sweep slowly across a wet windshield giving partial but revealing glimpses of something; he stares at the moon in the water; he stares at the moon itself; he picks up leaves and dust and, yes, stares at them.Then he flashes back to his boyhood where his teenage self thinks while he stares at the moon up and down in the water; and has heavy new-agey conversations with his girlfriend; and then thinks some more.At one point I thought I some kind of Disney-produced Hardy boys movie that happened to be made in Australia.My guess is that the producer(s)/director saw some European movies and thought it would be cool to use the same kind of pacing. Problem is, you need a story, a focal point, some good dialogue, and some cleverness to pull off this kind of thing. This movie has none of that.To experiment, I rewound and then FF'd at 2x and 3x speed. It was amazing: the movie is just as vacuous and boring at high speed.There are numerous swimming, wading and floating scenes. I thought "Great, this is Australia. A 20' croc is going to come up and snag the girl. Maybe it will thrash and roll around a lot before being shot by the local hunter. Maybe we'll see a snapping turtle tearing flesh off the girls head." No such luck though.Pearce seems to be a nothing actor. HB Carter is as always: strained, wispy, frail, intense, wispy, strained, punctuated, precocious, wispy and frail. Her range is about 1".The truly amazing thing is that Brannaugh left the brilliant and intelligent Emma Thompson for HB Carter - who doesn't even have big t*ts.Avod this at any cost unless you want some background noise while you read a magazine.

I watched this movie on television while it was running several times one month. The first time I watched it, I got antsy and changed the channel back and forth. I wound up watching it in its entirety several times later on. It is a haunting, intriguing film. Guy Pearce, of course, is extraordinary and so is Helena BC. I see it as a portrayal of a tortured soul who is still in shock from a momentary incident which altered his existence forever. One moment he is an innocent boy and the next he is suppressing a nightmare he cannot come to terms with for half his adult life.Once he allows himself to live the entire scenario with all the memories and the what if's, when he allows the ghost to be free, the tortured soul is also released. A beautiful, poetic and memorable film.

I was reading some of the previous reviews and realized that not everyone would get or like this movie - it is not one I would recommend to many friends, but I loved it. Painful, real, acknowledging of life's moments to regret- it made me think of the line from the Big Kahuna when Danny Divito says you have lots to regret, you just don't know it yet (paraphrase) - another great non-action movie. I saw nothing of the paranormal in this movie - I think that is an interpretation by those who do not get it. Beautifully done and tenderly told, I heartily recommend this movie to a small handful of special people which included my 15 year old daughter.