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There is much of the troubling darkness of Ray Lawrence's earlier work, movies like Bliss and Lantana, present in Jindabyne, an Australian rendition of Raymond Carver's short story 'So much water so close to home'. From the first scenes - a sexually-motivated killing, implied rather than shown - Jindabyne holds your attention despite its somewhat slow pace and characters that can range from frustrating to infuriating. Its themes of resident evil, moral ambiguity and the divulgent fragility of relationships make it a difficult film to watch, despite its thought-provoking aspects.Jindabyne revolves around four men who embark on a weekend fishing-trip, more of an annual ritual where they separate themselves from their wives and lives, hiking deep into the mountains. Shortly after arriving Stewart (Byrne) finds the body of an Aboriginal girl, stripped naked and floating in the river. The four make a telling decision: rather than hike back to report their find they keep fishing; the girl's body is left in the river where the cold water will slow decomposition; they tether it to a tree to prevent it floating downstream and into rapids. That the four think little about the moral implications of their conscious choice is reflected in subsequent scenes where they fish happily, not discussing their find or speculating about what happened to the girl. On returning, the callousness of their delay in reporting their find divides their families and their communities. Most of the focus is on Stewart's relationship with his wife Claire as the incident opens up existing fractures in their relationship. In fact the whole affair makes you wonder if any of the characters involved was ever truly happy; they certainly wonder it themselves.The nature of the story is intensely psychological, which necessitates both good writing and acting to carry off. Pleasingly, Jindabyne has plenty of both. Beatrix Christian had Carver's story to draw upon but it would have been incredibly difficult to give this an Australian context, with all its understatement and scorn for overt displays of emotion (perhaps why they imported Linney). The addition of her and Byrne, two skilled international character actors, certainly added quality and some depth; they were supported by an ensemble cast that mixed Australian veterans (John Howard, 'Bud' Tingwell, Chris Haywood) with lesser-known but talented actors with an appreciation of the material they had been gifted.
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