Mystery Road

Plot synopsis:
Near the rural town of Winton, Queensland, a truck driver hears a wild dog growling and finds the body of a teenage girl named Julie Mason inside one of the tunnels. Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) is called from the city to investigate the murder. He learns from his informer Oldboy (Jack Charles) that Julie was a drug addict and discovers that she used to have sex with truck drivers for money. He then tries to speak with Julie's friend Tarnie (Siobhan Binge) but she refuses to talk. One night, Jay follows his colleagues, Johnno (Hugo Weaving) and Robbo (Robert Mammone), and sees them arrive at a run-down building in the middle of nowhere. When they spot him in the distance, he flees and they flag him down. Johnno asks him if he has ever killed anyone accidentally, later adding that he was just kidding.A neighborhood boy tells Jay that he has found Julie's phone and gives it to him in exchange for holding Jay's gun. Jay finds several text messages to his teenage daughter, Crystal. He visits his ex-wife Mary (Tasma Walton) and asks if he can speak to Crystal. He asks her if she wants to move to the city with him, but she runs off, crying. Jay searches a farm near to the scene of the crime and meets its owner, Sam Bailey (David Field). Sam mentions wild dogs prowling the area. Before Jay leaves, he sees a young man (Ryan Kwanten) leaving in a white hunting truck. Jay visits a old man who had reported wild dogs eating human bones, who tells him to look for people gone missing recently. Jay finds out that teenage girl Nellie Dargon has also gone missing. Upon hearing that Julie frequented the Dusk till Dawn motel to sleep with truckers, Jay sets out to find a man who was there the night of her death.When he asks the motel owner (Zoe Carides) of any frequent guests who stayed on that night, she tells him about William Smith, who drives a white hunting truck. He tracks the car down and arrives at a house in the middle of nowhere. Upon seeing Smith, Jay realises he is the same man he saw at Sam's farm. Smith insults Jay, refuses to speak and states that he works as a kangaroo hunter. He and his biker roommate intimidate Jay. Jay goes back to the police station and searches for Smith's police record, but fails to find one. He does a search of the plate number and finds that Smith is actually Sam's son, Pete.The next day, Jay follows Pete onto a local street. Pete gets out of his car and Johnno enters, unaware of Jay. Jay follows Johnno to a resting place where he meets up with a local criminal named Wayne Silverman (Damian Walshe-Howling). Jay arrives at Wayne's house, but Wayne sees him and flees. Jay blocks his way with his car and arrests him. Wayne mentions that he was asked to look after some heroin and he left it in his car. When he left the car, it got stolen. In the middle of the interrogation, Johnno knocks on the door. He tells Jay to leave and reveals that Wayne is his informant.Later, Jay sees a suspicious orange car and drives up to a hill, where he uses his Winchester rifle to scope the car. A Land Rover appears and the orange car's driver pulls Wayne out and hands him over to the Land Rover's driver. They execute him and leave. He finds Nellie's dead body and receives a call from the local pathologist that the fabric from a car seat was found under Julie's nails. Jay meets Johnno and discovers that Johnno isn't corrupt and he wants to help Jay, but needs him to search Julie's house to find the "missing piece of the puzzle." He also tells Jay that Robbo is involved in the drug business. Jay searches the house and opens the back of the TV, finding several bags of cocaine. Jay arranges a trade in the hill.Jay arrives at the hill and the two cars show up. A man wearing a hockey mask exits one of the cars and Jay gives him the bag. As Jay stands there, a surprise shot from a distance hits him in his arm. A shootout ensues and Jay is wounded again. Jay sees Pete's truck in the distance and his windshield is shot out by Pete. Pete attempts to shoot Jay, but repeatedly misses. The masked man is shot in the head by Johnno, who is sitting in the distance with a sniper rifle. The orange car comes towards him and Jay shoots the driver. Pete's biker roommate, who was sitting in the back of the car, is shot dead by Jay. Pete and Johnno exchange shots at each other. Eventually, Pete fires his final bullet and we cut back to Jay, who is firing his remaining ammo at the Land Rover. He shoots everyone dead and looks over at Johnno, only to find he has been shot in the neck by Pete. He gets his Winchester rifle out and loads it with 3 bullets. Jay approaches the masked man and pulls off his mask, discovering he is actually Robbo. He sees that Pete has driven off, but sees his car nearby. He shoots two of his tires out and shoots Pete in the head. Jay searches the Land Rover and finds Sam sitting in the back. He sees scratch marks on the backseat and realises they killed Julie.At sunset, Jay prepares to leave Winton. He drives past Mary's house and sees her and Crystal standing on the footpath. He gets out of the car and makes small talk with Mary. They stare at each other and the screen cuts to black.

Tags: murder

Review:
I have said it before about top quality film directing - that the feel was more like a documentary with real people and not actors.The acting was excellent but not of a fine silken quality or in any way slick.
Rather the characters were raw and gritty, which could explain some review comments suggesting wooden or poor acting.This movie felt like a fly on the wall view of the hard side of a tough life in the Australian outback, replete with huge social problems, racism, and defeated and depressed people tying to survive while drugs and crime were eating into the life of the area.As depressing as was the setting, funny enough, I was not in the least depressed by the movie.
There was a strong ethical line and I felt throughout that good would make it in the end.This is a great movie without any big name actors, without fancy settings, without a great musical score, without great special effects, without bells or whistles of any description.
It does so through the eyes of Aboriginal detective Joe Swan (Aaron Pedersen), who returns after a period of 10 years away to the remote small Australian town in which his daughter Crystal (Tricia Whitton) and her mother - Swan's estranged wife, Mary (Tasma Walton) - live.
Other than that, "Mystery Road", which starts slowly before gradually building up to its dramatic conclusion, is an almost faultless film - and is certainly one that is worth looking out for.
There is much to commend in this outback-set crime drama from director, writer and cinematographer, Ivan Sen.The first scene sets up the whole film most deftly: its depiction of the magnitude of the land at sunset coupled with the place name, Massacre Creek, instantly makes it clear that the vastness of the Australian terrain and inglorious, largely unrepented historic events will frame what follows.Aaron Pedersen plays the police detective Jay Swan, an Aboriginal returning from 'the city' to his small and extremely isolated home town after a 10 year absence.
Not fully accepted by the white community either, he is the classic outsider forced to go it alone.Swan is assigned to the case of a murdered Aboriginal teenage girl whose body is found in a state of some decay quite some time after her violent end.
As Swan battles on uncovering corruption, drug dealing and civic sanctioned child prostitution, he starts to shed light on the town's inherent racism and misogyny – there appears to be no one in the town of any authority who is either black or female.The film is a modern twist on the western genre: the lone lawman coming to town quietly determined to see right is done.
In the main, the supporting cast is also strong – especially Hugo Weaving as a police officer of dubious integrity and an alluded to murky past.Like all classic westerns the film's denouement is a good old-fashioned shoot-out.
Early scene dialogue giving the backstory is rather stilted – though this quickly settled down; the minor character of a buffoonish local newspaper reporter was both unconvincing and irrelevant – it was as if Sen felt, wrongly, that his film needed a little comic relief.
The use of aerials helped cement characters & culture of small outback town wonderfully, as did the simple style of presenting different cultural landscapes within the one time.
A detective from a small outback settlement investigates the murder of an Aboriginal girl whose body has been found in a drain under the highway in the outskirts of town.
The Australian outback is really a very cinematic landscape, its sheer expanse and seeming endlessness can look great in a widescreen frame and the cinematography in Mystery Road shows again why.
This extends to the slow and deliberate way that the story-line unfolds before us.The film looks at a few social issues that underpin the mystery story-line such as race relations, prostitution, police corruption and drug abuse.
There have been many good Australian films to come out in recent years(The Proposition, Animal Kingdom, and Snowtown come to mind) and Mystery Road is another quality film to add to that list.
Mystery Road shines a spotlight on race relations in Australia as well, and with Jay being an aboriginal detective, he faces a lot of adversity throughout the film.
Overall, this movie offers some fantastic shots of the rural outback of Australia with an interesting plot to boot.
The negative reviews baffled me and the positive ones can't do Mystery Road enough justice.From the opening until the dramatic end, the movie is a captivating tour de force.
Coming from the U.S. I'm completely ignorant of the racial biases apparently at play in the Australian Outback, and this film subtly puts them on display without having them become overbearing or preachy.The acting is tops and Aaron Pederson does his subject well, playing him with confidence and understatement.
Again, from beginning to end the movie hit all the right notes, and even its climatic ending delivered a superbly satisfying denouement to the whole.I've come to appreciate films not produced in the U.S. because they all too often are so formulaic with shallowly cast characters.
Mystery Road represents among the best of what I look for in a movie produced anywhere and is tops among such "foreign" films.
Sure, all the aspects of film that upset people will be trundled out to smear this movie but pay no attention to them; pay attention to the marvellous script that uses minor plots to magnify the larger story.
This seems to be a very polarizing movie among reviewers, but I am coming down on the side of those who feel that it is an excellent and moody thriller/mystery which perfectly captures tone of Australian outback as I imagine it to be, although this same characteristic will make it seem far too languid for many people.
It tries to combine the western and the thriller style, and I think it has succeeded.The movie narrates a story of a lonely detective who tries to hunt down the murderer of a young girl in the remote and sparsely inhabited territory of Australia.
But not the teeming clichés are responsible for that (because there were any), but the adequate atmosphere what the movie could have created, because it's able to involve the audience and encourage them to investigate along with the protagonist.At the beginning I felt the fact a bit weird, that almost every single member of the town were totally unfriendly with the detective, even a few years old tiny kid, who was brave enough to announce without batting an eyelid that he'd take the detective's life.
The film could perfectly visualize in front of our eyes, that the detectives don't have as fast-paced life as we could experience that in the high- budget Hollywood movie, but they are much slower, tedious, tiresome and difficult.
The film was intriguing, the cast was very good however the plot had so many misleading elements that were never fully developed - seemed like the screenwriter could not resolve his direction.
Jay Swann (Aaron Pedersen) returns from the big city to take up the job of detective in a small outback town where he has grown up.
He starts to dig for clues and finds that for a small outback town there seems to be an awful lot going on, from drugs to prostitution and he is never quite sure where anyone stands - including his fellow officers.
I was engrossed.Based in a small town in the Australian outback, we have our lead detective single-minded investigating the disturbing murder of a young woman.
At the end I'm yelling at the television, 'WHAT THE...?!!!' amongst many other colourful words, but as I settled down (and took a couple of Valium) I really felt that I had watched a very different, but quality film.I basically agree with Peter Henderson's review (from Australia) in everything he said.
But, be that as it may, the movie has a good sense of mystery (NOT exactly in the traditional Hollywood sense) that truly draws you in and keeps you wondering what is going to happen.I mean, I LOVE ambiguous films.
And, as just about EVERYONE here has already said, Hugo Weaving's performance, even as a side character is excellent (as usual)I think that if you really have a love for moody, ponderous, vague, picturesque films, and if you don't mind VERY slow, low-key pacing, you should enjoy this movie.
The story is ostensibly that of a black Australian detective searching to unravel the murder of a black teenage girl but really the film is about trust, and also broken trust.
Like most good films where a main character tries to bring justice to the victim, this is also a journey of self-discovery but this is delivered with great finesse so that it is left up to the audience to make of this what it will.
He is supported by the cream of Australian acting to tell an excellent story of crime and corruption in the outback.
Going by the reviews i thought this one would be a top notch thriller.To my surprise the movie is slow paced and makes you fall asleep .I literally slept twice in the first 50 minutes.The acting in the movie is what keep you going and asking for more.The direction could have been much better but the actors have done justice to whatever screen space they could get .The director confuses a very good plot with some unnecessary twists and turns which don't make sense at all.Over all the movie offers some amazing shots of Australia ,i wish i could say the same thing about the entire movie.Its definitely not in the A- league but can be a time killer as it was for me on a laid back Sunday!.
Ivan Sen has quietly been going about his movie making business in Australia for over 10 years now with his first feature film Beneath Clouds garnering great critical acclaim in 2002, and his under-seen yet equally acclaimed 2011 film Toomelah delivering one of the better Aboriginal themed movies this country has produced.
With his new film Mystery Road, we see Sen developing a bigger project with an even bigger cast and the results, while slightly mixed, showcase that Sen could quite well be one of this country's brightest directing talents.Sen is a jack of all trades who again here acts as not only director but composer, cinematographer and editor.
While Sen miscalculated these aspects of the film, he certainly directs some very solid performances in a tale that will keep you watching right through to the end.In the lead role of understated yet determined aboriginal detective Jay Swan, TV actor Pedersen is a solid centering piece for the movie, a man that clearly knows his way around and can smell a liar a mile off.
Other well-known Australian actors such as True Blood's Ryan Kwanten and David Field pop up in brief yet important roles.Tying up in a way that for some reason feels like a cop out, Mystery Road is however a very enjoyable and impressively made Australian murder mystery that has enough qualities to find an audience overseas.
With this effort and his previous films one gets the feeling the Sen is not far off from making an undisputed and successful Australian classic.3 lonesome dusty roads out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinions check out - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com.
I've seen this movie at least twice and it's still an excellent film, well worth watching for any viewer who hasn't seen it.
Mystery Road'' is a western-like crime film, written and directed by the talented Ivan Sven.
The movie is set in a small Australian town where everybody knows everybody and a gruesome killing of a black teenage girl takes place.
''Mystery Road'' is a very entertaining police procedural with top-level acting both by Pedersen and Hugo Weaving (in a supporting role) and a memorable, very well crafted, final shoot-out scene.
If you are looking for the generic Hollywood crime film you will be disappointed as ''Mystery Road'' will attract the audiences who appreciate different qualities in a movie..
A complete lack of interest is what best describes this movie - an uninteresting story, uninteresting dialogue, uninteresting characters, uninteresting setting, uninteresting cinematography, uninteresting direction, uninteresting background music.
Rogue cop Aaron Pedersen is on the case, and he predictably comes up against the usual racism and conspiracies in his bid to discover the truth behind the murders.The film as a whole has a compelling vibe and despite being slow-paced it's completely engrossing.
The low-tech nature of the production gives it a naturalistic feel and the performances are excellent, particularly from the bigger names like Hugo Weaving (THE MATRIX), Damian Walshe-Howling (THE REEF), Bruce Spence (MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR), and Ryan Kwanten (RED HILL) who all give subdued, authentic turns.My only real complaint is that there are so many sub-plots here that half of them don't get tied up, leaving too many loose ends at the climax.
What possesses the Australian Film Industry if you can actually call it that to continue to produce garbage like Mystery Road.
Mystery Road (2013) is a film about a small town cop whose investigation into the death of a young prostitute leads him into a dark underworld of meth producers and pimps.
Mystery Road scores some points for its visual association of a rustic countryside setting with bleakness and decay (see also, True Detective and Breaking Bad), but everything from Aaron Pederson's flat performance to the overlong running time make this a B-list thriller at best.
Mystery Road can best be described as an Aboriginal noir western.Aaron Pedersen is Detective Jay Swan.
A determined indigenous cop who never seems to give up despite the obstacles in his way which includes threats and racism.The detective wears a white cowboy hat but seems to use very little of his grey cells in the head as he investigates the murder of a young Aboriginal prostitute in the outback.This is a very slow burn thriller with some unresolved side plots and conspiracies.
Investigating the brutal murder of an Indigenous teenage girl in rural Australia, an Indigenous cop begins to question whether drugs, police corruption and other factors may have contributed in this thriller from 'Beneath Clouds' director Ivan Sen. As per 'Beneath Clouds', Sen litters his film is beautiful landscape shots.
Lead actor Aaron Pedersen certainly tries his best to make the most of the material though - and he is helped out by a talented supporting cast - but one's mileage with the movie may well vary..
(56%) An outback set modern day western crime detective movie that leaves me split, maybe not in half, but split nevertheless.
it just never feels like it's getting anywhere half as quickly as it could which is evident in its running time of just over 1 hour 50, as this by all rights is a 90 minute movie.
Additionally, I should point out that the film is, at times, deliberately vague.The story is about a detective investigating the murder of a young Aboriginal girl.
I recommend this movie to anyone who likes a good dramatic story with a lot of the mystery left for you, and the main character to discover together, you get this dealt out exceptionally well in fact.
"Cactus" is a film set in outback Australia with excellent actors, impressive cinematography and insufficient tension to sustain its sparse and obscure narrative over the course of its running time.
That's the sort of thing the English playwright, Harold Pinter could deliver in bucket loads with just a few characters and claustrophobically small settings in his early plays, such as "The Birthday Party""Mystery Road" is not edge of the seat, scary movie stuff either, but it involves the viewers intellect and emotions by allowing them to share in the aboriginal detective hero's quest as he works out how and why an Aboriginal teenage girl has been murdered.
If the film, "Chopper" could galvanize the Hollywood money guys into putting Andrew Dominik and Eric Banna onto their "A" lists, "Mystery Road" should do the same for director Ivan Sen and lead actor Aaron Pedersen.
The Australian full length movie "Mystery Road" is one of those flicks where about 1/4 of the way through it a person begins to realize that they are watching an exceptional actor who was well cast in the roll of a police department detective in a city that had serious drug problems and gang related violence, mixed in with crimes against young women.
Which led to me going down the mystery road.The plot:Returning to his old small town where his ex-wife and daughter live, aboriginal Detective Jay Swan is sent to investigate the body of an aboriginal teenage girl found at an "unofficial pit-stop." Learning that her name was Julie Mason,Swan finds out that Mason was an addict,who was a hooker that had sex with truckers at the stop.
Whilst trying to find out what his daughter is caught up in,Swan begins to notice that a number of his fellow officers appear very keen in stopping from going down a road that gets to the heart of the case,and the town.View on the film:Retaining the way he could give a calm situation an underlying sense of menace in the first Matrix flick, Hugo Weaving gives a chilling performance as cop Johnno,whose "friendly" small-talk and shoulder taps to Swan crackle with a sinister unease,whilst Ryan Kwanten (minus his fake Deep South accent from True Blood) gives a creepy performance as Pete Bailey,with Kwanten using space to open the uncomfortable mood between Bailey and Swan.
-- I will say right from the out set that if you need a fast pace story running very quickly and smoothly from front to back this is likely not to be a movie you will enjoy.
Characters that are broken can make for good stories, but that is a different sort of compulsive draw for a film.