Jindabyne Review

Reviews

Sep 17th 2007 By Total Film

“There’s no bad men here,” Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) tells his son after a murdered Aboriginal girl’s body is found in a river near the town of Jindabyne. In Ray Lawrence’s follow-up to Lantana, the truth of that assertion is up for grabs. Stewart and his buddies discover the body then continue their fishing trip after tying it to a tree. Are they bad men or just irresponsible? Drawing the film’s conflict across racial, sexual and moral lines, Lawrence coaxes standout performances from Byrne and Laura Linney as his wife, troubled by what his insensitivity says about their marriage. Turning the agoraphobia of the Outback into a claustrophobic realm where secrets won’t stay buried, Jindabyne is a thriller that probes the evil that men do with considerable force.