STRANGERLAND

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3.5 stars
Aiming for the dramatic heartland somewhere between Jindabyne and Somersault, Kim Farrant's domestic thriller has all the necessary trigger points: missing children, distraught parents, failing marriage, underage sex, a local suspect, honest copper amid a searing, outback setting.
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Drop in an all-star cast abetted by P.J. Dillon's eye-watering camera work, and you've got an attention grabbing film. At least, to begin with.

Matthew (Joseph Fiennes - Shakespeare In Love) has moved his family to the 'shit hole' desert town of Nathgari for reasons not immediately forthcoming. It has something to do with their lively 15 year old daughter Lily, and his troubled wife Catherine (Nicole Kidman - The Railway Man): the couple sleep in different rooms. When Lily and her younger brother suddenly disappear, their parents are plunged into a nightmare of assumption and suspicion as local cop David Rae (Hugo Weaving - Mystery Road) fights the clock, and Matthew, to find them.

Co-writer Michael Kinirons is best known for Jane Campion's offbeat TV series The Lake whose moody tone and themes are revisited here. However Strangerland is more contained, and considerably more effective, under Farrant's taught direction as she creates a haunted, threatening world that is at once familiar and unknown. The desert, in all its wonder and terror, folds itself around the action like the suffocating character it is.

Nicole Kidman is on form as a distraught, unsupported mother being torn apart by fear. Weaving is familiar yet robust as the sympathetic police officer, while remaining support cast are equally solid. Things come a little unstuck with the odd, brittle tone of Fiennes who is more distracting than convincing. He doesn't provide any link between Matthew's cold hostility and his sense of paternal protection. Fortunately, the desert is on hand once again to dust over the cracks and it's here in the moody, menacing outback that the film is at its strongest.

In the end, Strangerland may be looser than you'd like with a duration that ultimately outstays its welcome, but for the most part this is a vivid and compelling drama whose central intrigue lasts the distance. Another lap through the editing process and we may well have been watching this year's Jindabyne, or Somersault.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Paramount Theatre, Sydney, on 15 April 2015

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STARRING
Nicole Kidman
Hugo Weaving
Joseph Fiennes


DIRECTOR
Kim Farrant

SCREENWRITER
Michael Kinirons
Fiona Seres

COUNTRY
Australia

CLASSIFICATION
MA15+

RUNTIME
112 minutes

AUSTRALIAN
RELEASE DATE
June 11, 2015
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Strangerland (2015) on IMDb
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