Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
Revolver Entertainment
- Cert:
- Cat.no: REVD2006
- Running time: 119 minutes
- Year: 2006
- Pressing: 2007
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 10 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: None
Director:
- Ray Lawrence
(Bliss, Jindabyne, Lantana)
Producers:
- Catherine Jarma
Screenplay:
- Beatrix Christian (from a short story “So Much Water So Close to Home”)
Music:
- Paul Kelly and Dan Luscombe
Cast:
- Stewart Kane: Gabriel Byrne
Claire Kane: Laura Linney
Carl: John Howard
Rocco: Stelios Yiakmis
Billy ‘The Kid’: Simon Stone
Jude: Deborra-Lee Furness
Carmel: Leah Purcell
Elissa: Alice Garner
Vanessa: Betty Lucas
Tom: Sean Rees-Wemyss
Caylin-Calandria: Eva Lazzaro
Susan: Tatea Reilly
Gregory: Chris Heywood
Jindabyne is so-called because it’s the town in which the story is located. When I first heard about this film’s title and then went to look it up a couple of days later, I typed in something completely different, got no result, and so searched for its lead actor, Gabriel Byrne, instead. And that’s probably the main problem for a film such as this. It wasn’t promoted upon its cinema release and it never even made an appearance round my Manchester Showcase despite it being rather good, but if you have a film with a difficult-to-remember title and which doesn’t get any promotion, then you’re going to have a tough sale however good it is.
So, onto the story and it begins with Susan (Tatea Reilly, bottom-right pic), a girl from an aborigonal tribe taking a long drive on a little-used road and it only takes for one grimy and mental old man (Chris Heywood), called Gregory in the credits but for whose name is never mentioned in the script, to separate her from her ability to breathe as he brings her car to an abrupt halt, for the last time. Where this comes into play for Stewart Kane (Byrne) and his friends Carl (John Howard), Rocco (Stelios Yiakmis) and Billy (Simon Stone) is that they take a brief holiday from breaking their back working at the local petrol station and head off to the mountains for a fishing trip, only for Stewart to chance upon her first, in the river, before alerting the attention of the others.
Where things take a turn for how it affects them is because they don’t report their find immediately, choosing instead to tie the body to the side of the river so it doesn’t get carried off downstream towards the rapids, from where it’ll never be found. They think they’re doing the right thing – as best they can – so they can still indulge in their pursuit and then contact the police. Okay, it’s not an ideal situation for them to find themselves in, but circumstances such as one of the party injuring his leg while he’s there mean they can’t all leave their camp and the remote location means there’s no mobile phone signal.
Naturally, not everyone sees it their way, starting with Stewart’s wife Claire (Laura Linney) who we learn left for 18 months after their son Tom was born, but while she’s an interesting character she does tend to take the whole situation to heart far more than she should and either they’re meant to have a very fractured relationship or the part has just been rather overwritten. While there are a fair number of other characters, the only ones who stand out are Betty Lucas as Gabriel’s mother Vanessa, who comes to stay but whom Laura really doesn’t get on with, and the children who play both Tom (Sean Rees-Wemyss) and his friend, the oddly-named Caylin-Calandria (Eva Lazzaro), both of whom work so well in their roles together because they remind you of a time when you were only a few years into your life, yourself, and those you knew of a similar age were equally trying to find their way in life. The innocence as well as nastiness that such friendships was also explored here, one scene involving them taking a knife into school and killing the guinea pig.
There was also something about Leah Purcell who played Rocco’s other half, Carmel, as a teacher at the local school.
Aside from that, another plus for the film is some wonderful shots of the Australian outback and some interesting slow-zooms on certain scenes, giving the subject a key importance, reminding me a bit of the camerawork in Mad Max, with some excellent direction stirring up tension and that’s required in a murder mystery when, for the viewer, there is no mystery. We know who the killer is early on – he’s an old man who’s a loner, and he’s happy not to be found out if the heat can be taken by the main family in the film and their friends who are all perceived as racist due to men’s actions.
Overall, it’s an engaging drama with some very good performances, but on reflection not a lot of it really goes anywhere and the way it ends is rather ridiculous, since it attempts to find a conclusion whereas those elements that didn’t reach one felt more complete as Jindabyne plays out like a slice-of-life drama from the characters’ lives and, in life, there are no conclusions – certain aspects of your life come to an end whereas many other parts of it just drift on.
I can only presume that the presentation of the promo DVD that arrived won’t be the same as the finished product in the shops. Apart from the film having no menu, no subtitles, no extras and no Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the chaptering was a pitiful total of 10, all of which were seemingly stuck at 10+ minute random intervals being placed with all the care and dexterity of a two-year-old.
There is a decent anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 print on display here, but the audio contained only Dolby Stereo sound, and this was reversed, so as a car drove off to the left-hand side of the screen, the sound went off to the right(!) In addition, the dialogue wasn’t always completely clear so if lines came out muffled then you were stuffed because of the lack of subtitles. Oh, but there was a subtitle track. However, all it did was bring up the name “Property of Revolver Entertainment”, at 10-minute intervals, so that went off straight away.
Revolver, please, I implore you, if you’re going to send out promo discs to PR companies to forward to reviewers, the reviewers need to see the DVD as it will appear in the shops – that means menus, extras, subtitles, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and no bloody copyright logos over the picture. Nothing less will do.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
0 OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.