Jindabyne
15, 123 mins

The civilised sheen of suburban society can crack like thin ice, according to the films of the Australian director Ray Lawrence. Renowned for his considered adult psychodramas and for his incredibly slow work rate – the last picture, Lantana, was six years ago; before that there was a gap of 16 years – Lawrence revisits familiar themes in his latest picture, Jindabyne. As in Lantana, a murder triggers a situation in which a close-knit community is faced with devastating moral dilemmas.

Jindabyne is based on the same Raymond Carver story that was used by Robert Altman as part of Short Cuts. But Lawrence transposes the story to Australia and in doing so touches a raw nerve of white middle-class guilt about treatment of indigenous communities.

A fishing trip deep into isolated hill country is the catalyst for the events at the heart of the film. Stewart Kane (Gabriel Byrne) and three friends have planned a weekend far from civilisation. Sun-dappled woodlands seem idyllic but the way Lawrence’s camera spies on the men like a stalker brings a sense of unease. There’s also the fact that we already know what they don’t yet realise – that there’s a killer on the loose.

But it’s the victim rather than the murderer whom the men encounter, a young Aboriginal woman whose body is gently rocked by the river’s currents. Rather than cut short the trip and report the body, the men reason that there’s nothing they can do – she’s already dead. Might as well go ahead and fish.

Their community reacts to this decision with horror. The men are condemned as callous and culturally insensitive. The focus of the story then switches to Stewart’s wife, Claire (Laura Linney), who is repulsed by her husband’s actions and determined to make amends to the family of the girl.

It’s the interplay between Linney and Byrne that elevates the film – nerves strung as tight as violin strings, they jab and parry, shredding the very fabric of their marriage. This kind of maturity and intelligence is all too infrequent in mainstream cinema – let’s hope it’s not another six years until Lawrence’s next film.

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