Jindabyne

Plot synopsis:
On an annual fishing trip, in isolated high country, Stewart (Gabriel Byrne), Carl (John Howard), Rocco (Stelios Yiakmis) and Billy (Simon Stone) find a girl's body in the river; she has been brutally murdered by Gregory (Chris Haywood), a local electrician. The girl (Tatea Reilly) turns out subsequently to be Aboriginal. The discovery shocks and confuses the men, particularly Gregory. Only the youngest of the men, Billy, understands this is a crime scene but he is ignored. Billy later leaves the town with his partner and child. The men initially suggest hiking back the following morning as it is too late in the day to safely navigate their way to their trucks. Gregory secures the girl's body by the ankle to the riverbank, so she will not drift downstream and get lost in the rapids. However, Stewart the next day goes fishing and, after catching an especially large fish, the men decide to spend the rest of the afternoon continuing their trip before informing the police in the morning.
While the men are gone, some of the men's wives (Jude and Claire) and Rocco's girlfriend (Carmel), get together socially. During their conversation, Jude (Carl's wife) reveals that their daughter died nearly two years ago, leaving them to raise their granddaughter Cailin-Calandria, who has psychological issues and towards whom Jude shows resentment. When Stewart's wife, Claire (Laura Linney) remarks that she does not think Stewart would want more children, Jude reveals that Claire had a mental breakdown after her son Tom was born and left the family for 18 months.
The men return home late Sunday night. After reporting the body to the police, they each go to their respective homes. Stewart goes home to Claire and finds her sleeping on her stomach, reminiscent of the posture of the dead body. He talks to her briefly and initiates intimacy. However, he does not disclose the find, which later causes problems when Claire finds out he left the girl's body to keep fishing.
The next morning, the police show up at Claire and Stewart's house to ask Stewart to answer some more questions. The men gather in the police station, where the police officer expresses his disgust that they would "fish over a dead body" instead of reporting it as soon as they could. Claire is stunned that Stewart would do such a thing and keeps trying to understand his reasons. The men come up with a story that Carl strained his ankle thus they could not walk back as early as they would have otherwise. Because the girl was Aboriginal, some believe the men neglected the dead girl out of racism. All of the men's businesses are vandalised in retaliation by Aboriginals, with painted slurs branding them racists. It becomes clear from this point that the western culture of a town that had to be abandoned and rebuilt on higher ground because of a dam and which is peopled by immigrants, is at odds with the ancient belief system of the native Aboriginals.
Claire and Elissa (Billy's partner) are the only ones of the group who express any remorse and condemnation for what happened. Jude repeatedly defends her husband Carl, while Carl argues that the girl was already dead and thus it made no difference to her whether they stayed or not. The more Claire pushes Stewart and the others to make amends, the more tensions increase in the town.
Prior to the fishing trip, Claire had begun throwing up repeatedly from morning sickness, which she hid from everyone. With her marriage unravelling, and haunted by her post-post-partum breakdown and abandonment of her first child, she inquires of a medical professional about how to get an abortion. However, she has still not gone through with it - nor revealed her pregnancy to Stewart - by the end of the film.
Despite encountering hostility from the rest of the group, Claire continues to try to reach out to the girl's family. She gathers donations to give to the girl's family for her funeral. Claire even goes to the family's home and is rebuked. She later returns to give them the money she has gathered.
Increasingly troubled that Claire continues to probe for the truth of what happened, Stewart erupts in rage one evening when Claire asks him to talk about it. The two begin fighting physically, while slinging barbs at each other about their past mistakes. The next day, after Billy and his family have left town for the coast, Stewart tells Claire - who he suspects is planning to leave him - that he will never allow her to take his son from him. Carl similarly stands up for Cailin-Calandria after Jude once again shows anger towards her, saying she cannot take her pain of losing their daughter out on their blameless granddaughter.
The next day, Claire goes to the memorial service. The rest of the men and their wives, as well as the children, show up to pay their respects, too. When Stewart apologises on behalf of the men, the girl's father throws dirt on him, spits on the ground and walks away, but there are no further objections to their presence. Stewart also asks Claire to come home.
Throughout the movie, the murdering electrician continuously pops up around the characters, and even attends the memorial service. He is never caught, though the final scene of the film where he is stung by a wasp before an abrupt cut to black opens the possibility that he is killed.

Tags: tragedy, murder

Review:
The movie poses some moral questions "Would you let the discovery of a dead body ruin your good weekend?" and more poignantly for Australians "Would it make any difference if the dead person was an aboriginal?" The acting, especially by Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, is commendable.
The basic plot could be set almost anywhere  failure of personal relationships in the context of a failure of civic duty, but Ray Lawrence has chosen to adapt Raymond Carver's short story of the fishermen who took their time over reporting finding a woman's body to a highly specific place, Jindabyne, NSW, and to include the vexed question of black/white relationships in Australia.As is pointed out in one of those awful cheery 1960s documentary being shown to the kids in the local primary school, the present day Jindabyne is a "second chance" sort of place, the old town having disappeared under the waters of Lake Jindabyne during the creation of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme, though at very low water levels the old church steeple is said to poke out of the water.
Gabriel Byrne does not put a foot wrong as Stewart, an ordinary bloke resigned to what little emotional comfort he can get from his family, and Laura Linney gives great depth to her role as his wife Claire, a woman for whom motherhood is a daunting task.The rest of the cast are fine.
Debra-Lee Furness as Carl's wife Jude makes a dislikeable character understandable, John Howard as Carl puts in a solid performance and there are two good performances from child actors Eva Lazzaro as Jude's disturbed granddaughter, and Sean Rees-Wemyss as Stewart and Claire's son Tom.Ray Lawrence clearly did not set out to create a crime story but he certainly shows that crime can have some unexpected collateral damage.
A fishing trip gone bad is one way of looking at JINDABYNE, but then you would miss the whole mystery of this film and how it examines the lives of others in a small Australian town, which on the surface may seem perfect.
The wind whipping through the trees and the power lines that dot the hills make for a perfect background for this film.Laura Linney, once and again, and Gabriel Byrne are two superb actors that make JINDABYNE come alive with strong performances, as well as from a seasoned cast.
The final scenes are powerful and leave you with a question of, "what now might Jindabyne be in the near future?" However, with that said, I felt the film could have been edited a bit more tightly, and not taken so long with the development of characters and the build up to the final conclusion.
As directed by Ray Lawrence with a cast of excellent actors, JINDABYNE will likely become a classic movie - if enough people will take the time and commitment to see it.In a small town called Jindabyne in Australia a group of four men depart their families for a fishing trip: Stewart Kane (Gabriel Byrne), Carl (John Howard), Rocco (Stelios Yiakmis) and Billy (Simon Stone).
While fly fishing in the back country, Stewart discovers the nude, murdered body of a dead Aboriginal girl Susan (Tatea Reilly) floating in the water, calls his buddies to witness the ugly act, and together they decide to wait until their fishing trip is over before reporting it.When the men return home, concerned and embarrassed about their actions as they report to the police, the town is outraged at their thoughtless behavior.
In a powerfully moving final memorial for the dead girl every one is forced to face the dirty aspects of the recent events and come to a degree of understanding and acceptance.Filmed in the beauty of the Australian countryside with camera technique that feels intimate and almost spying in nature, the story unfolds so naturally that the audience is made to feel a part of the dilemma at hand.
I'm glad to see a film made for people to think about, rather than spoon-feeding us some clichés about how hard life can be for the protagonists.Water plays a significant role throughout the movie, from the river where the fishermen find the body, to Lake Jindabyne, and the ghost stories about the drowned town.
When the press releases the information, their public and private lives are deeply affected and the disturbed Claire questions Stewart's attitude while trying to help and apologize with the family of the dead aborigine."Jindabyne" has a storyline of great potential, with a morbid and polemic study of moral aspects of human (and consequently flawed) characters.
Yet again we are subjected to a lecture from the black-armband historical revisionists about now terrible the nasty white man is to the abroginals.AND.....as a taxpayer, have to pay for the privilege of it due to Film Finance funding.I watched the entire wretched mess of a movie all the way through and then wondered how I would recover that completely wasted portion of my life.Sheesh....it was almost enough to drive me to watching 'Salo' again!!!!!.
As a commentary on racist attitudes and the even more shaky road to reconciliation between Whites and Blacks in Australia then I think Jindabyne falls well short and the denouement is quite laughable.Laura Linney's portrayal of a fish-out-of-water American in the Australian landscape attempting to come to grips with her failing marital relationship and anxiety-ridden motherhood is superb.
This sets off tremendous reverberations among both the townsfolk and their own individual families when the men finally arrive back home with their story."Jindabyne" throws so many disparate characters and plot lines into the mix that it could easily have become dissipated and unfocused had it fallen into less capable hands than those of writer Beatrix Christian and director Ray Lawrence.
Instead, in adapting Raymond Carver's short story, "So Much Water So Close to Home," to the screen, these filmmakers have created a broad, multi-leveled drama that is not afraid to take its time in gathering the strands of its story, and which is as much a portrait of a complex, troubled marriage and of a community torn asunder by a shocking event as it is a tale of an unsolved murder.Yet, even though the film is rich in minor characters (all enacted by a first-rate cast), the main focus is on Claire and Stuart Kane, two individuals with deep-seated problems and issues that are sometimes as unclear to us as they are to the characters themselves.
As an indication of the intelligence and depth of the storytelling, the characters in this film are never even remotely pigeonholed as "types," a fact that keeps us unbalanced and off guard for the duration of the movie.Lawrence's direction is lyrical, unhurried and focused, and the photography by David Williamson perfectly captures the haunting beauty of the Australian countryside.Those searching for a conventional serial killer thriller are destined, perhaps, to be disappointed by "Jindabyne," but those with a taste for the unconventional and unexpected will surely appreciate the riches offered by this unusually subtle and complex film..
Jindabyne is a profound art house crime/thriller/drama set entirely in an the isolated Australian town of Jindabyne, starring Laura Linney (Love Actually, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and Gabriel Byrne (Spider).An Irishman (Bryne), living in Australia with his American wife (Linney), is on an annual fishing trip, with four friends, when they come across the murdered body of a young Aboriginal woman (Tatea Reilly).
I'm not sure I like what he's done with the source material.In the story, "So Much Water So Close to Home," four men on a fishing trip discover the body of a dead woman floating in the river.
In the Carver story, we see things only from Claire's and Stuart's point of view; in "Jindabyne," the discovery becomes an issue that nearly tears the small town apart, and it just feels like the reaction is out of all proportion.
I will say in the movie's defense that I could have missed much of the point due to a lack of understanding about Australian, and especially aboriginal, cultures.The thing I liked least about "Jindabyne" was the inclusion of a creepy serial killer who we know is responsible for the girl's death.
Based on the short story "So Much Water So Close to Home" by Raymond Carver, director Ray Lawrence presents an expose and the various ways of coping and co-existing.Very well acted by the always solid Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, the real cast standout is Eva Lazzaro as young Caylin-Calandria, whose experiments with death are the spookiest part of the story.
The story was adapted before in 1993 as one of the many plot strands of Robert Altman's movie "Short Cuts" (by the way, another great movie).Away from home on a fishing trip, four men find the body of a dead girl in a river.
Jindabyne is a frankly boring tale about the murder of a young aboriginal woman and the subsequent discovery of her body by a group of fairly normal, nice white men on a fishing trip.
Nor do I deny that they continue to suffer from racism,misunderstanding and severe,entrenched disadvantage in many areas of our society,especially in health,education and opportunity.But to paint the picture in this movie of four seemingly normal white men, though with normal family and world weary problems;then their subsequent naturally shocked reaction at finding a dead body,only to make the most appalling decision imaginable simply defies belief.Surely the most obvious thing to do would be to pull the body from the water;cover it with dignity; whilst two men hightailed it back for help as two watched.
Much was due to the acting not the story itself.The inclusion of the Aboriginal part seems like a token attempt at raising the interest factor of the 'missing body' story.This is a modern Australian film that tried to do it all: great cinematography, great Aussie cast inclusion (despite leads going to foreign actors), great inclusion of Australian landscape for tourism factor and great script/story progression with cultural significance.
Jindabyne is based upon Raymond Carver's short story, 'So Much Water So Close to Home', memorably filmed previously in a segment in Robert Altman's Short Cuts.A group of men go fishing for a weekend and make a grim discovery, but it is the subsequent decision that they make which will have unforeseen, personal ramifications.Let's cut to the chase.
In fact, it is so much of an actor's film that the producers decided to bring in a couple of international stars, Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, to give it the credibility Australians could obviously not provide.Our actors do however, provide solid grounding so that the leads can strut their stuff; Deborra-Lee Furness, John Howard, Leah Purcell, Chris Haywood, even Max Cullen and 'Bud' Tingwell drop in to the Snowy's to add a slice of thespian, though I had to wonder what was the point of all these actors, especially Alice Garner whom I've always found to be rather tedious.The Snowy Mountains is a beautiful part of the world, but Director Ray Lawrence (Bliss, Lantana) isn't interested in landscape, only characters.
Here I think the fate of that girl and what followed about her had little to do with her ethnicity, beside is not even the central theme for the story merely its vehicle yet surely in this situation would affect those who love her and yes the aboriginal situation in Australia remains delicate so it's logic for her people to perceive that event in the way they did, just as logic it is for the wives of those who made a "bad choice" to have their own perception and suspicion about the event.
The way people have different reactions/attitudes (some seemingly inexplicable) to the same situation, the way unresolved issues from the past bubble to the surface when new stresses occur, the way people rationalize behavior and demonize each other, the way "closure" eludes us...all of these things are beautiful realized by the writer, director, and actors.Yes, the film may seem slow in some parts...it's not a classic action movie, that's for certain!
Away from their everyday lives the men enjoy the gracious peace of nature, but out there in the silence Stewart notices a woman's body in a river.Finely and precisely directed by Australian filmmaker Ray Lawrence, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints draws a quiet and moving portrayal of a marriage, a relationship between a 7-year-old girl and a boy, a strange choice and a crime.
While notable for it's naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions and sterling cinematography by cinematographer David Williamson, this dialog-driven and narrative-driven story where a community becomes so engaged with placing guilt at a group of men who acted against their better judgment that they disregard looking for the actual perpetrator, depicts some empathic and enigmatic studies of character and contains a prominent and efficient score by Australian composers Paul Kenny and Dan Luscombe.This tangible and psychological drama about interpersonal relations and culture clash which is set in a town in the South-eastern part of New South Wales during a summer, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, subtle character development and continuity, natural characters and the commendable acting performances by Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, American actress Laura Linney, Australian actress Deborra-Lee Furness and actor Sean Rees-Wemyss and Australian actress Eva Lazzaro in their debut feature film roles.
You realise this film is good when its protagonists deliver stunning lines that seem totally natural, because you believe in their characters; also in the subtle way it works as a coolly unnerving thriller: this element of the movie is mostly played down against the personal drama so that when it is occasionally allowed to surface, it really shocks.
This film is at first subtle suspense,then drama and human psychodrama,spiced with human failings, marital discord,a curious backdrop of the haunted town of Jindabyne,and community unrest,racial conflict and a local serial killer.Perfect performance by Gabriel Byrne as Kane,a local gas station owner who has several fishing and drinking buddies, and discovers the corpse of a young woman on one of these trips.
He and his friends wait a few days to report to the authorities, and the moral issues of this are complex and varied.The young woman victim was of Aborigine extraction, although this aspect may have been divulged more clearly to the audience.Byrne and his wife Claire (sterling performance by Laura Linney),are in the midst of their own marital issues,she has a son and Byrne seems to favor him,there is underlying rage Claire has toward her husband which is not fully explored.
In following on from the previous, it would seem that the ghosts of our past remain "undead" like zombies - pressing upon us unless we confront them.3) Billy (Simon Stone): Represents a city-minded Australian: no real clue about the sorts of issues that arise in communities like Jindabyne and turns a blind eye / walks away when things get heated - especially with respect to Aboriginal relations.4) Fish out of water: notice that they are all fishermen, discover the girl during a fishing trip and therefore the "fish out of water" symbolism begins to play a role.
Despite good acting and rich exploration of interrelated dysfunctional family situations -- the same kind of thing Australian director Ray Lawrence's 'Lantana' was notable for, so he's doing what he wants to do -- 'Jindabyne' doesn't work, and it leaves one feeling unsatisfied.Lawrence has so much going on in this film, it's as if Alejandro González Iñárritu's 'Babel' had been concentrated into one little Australian town.
Jindabyne is a brilliant Australian film.At a simple level Jindabyne is the story of four men who make a bad moral choice, to delay the reporting of a deceased woman while they continue their fishing trip.
I went to see Jindabyne not expecting too much as the plot has been exposed far and wide in reviews and especially with comments like 'it's not as good as Lantana.' Well I'm happy to report that it was the best Aussie movie I've seen in a long time and I thought it was better than Lantana.
Apparently 'Jindabyne' is the story of how the monumentally stupid behavior of four Australian good buddies (not reporting the discovery of a body until they've finished fishing, and then letting on that they did so) brings the racial conflicts of an Australian town and emotional conflicts of its families to the surface.The problem with the film is that not one of the characters is written as anything but a stereotype.
The four men decide to just leave the girl's body where it is and keep fishing for another day before finally notifying the police.The movie goes on after that and physically demonstrates Einstein's theories of the relativity of time, because the second half of this film takes an an eon to get through.
There's a whole bit about the public revulsion at what Stewart and the other men did; the complicated marital history of Claire and Stewart; Claire goes on a quest to try and connect with the dead girl's family and atone for Stewart; the killer in the truck shows up a few times for no good reason except to keep the audience awake; we suddenly get a theme about the divide between white Australians and the Aborigines; and the story even comes back to Tom and Caylin-Calandria for a resolution to their little bit and it doesn't fit at all what they were doing in the first part of the film.
It's like the movie has a stroke in the middle of the story and doesn't realize its left side is paralyzed for the rest of the film.Unless you plan on fast forwarding through every scene that doesn't have Laura Linney in ittake a pass on Jindabyne..