Jindabyne Never …
2011
Never mind that title, impenetrable as it might be to us American folk, is a totally engrossing and fulfilling character sketch of small town life in an Australian burg which details how little it takes to awaken the demons and ghosts lurking just below the surface of the town’s — or Anytown’s, presumably — cheery fa¿ade. Based on the Raymond Carver short story “So Much Water So Close to Home,” which was previously filmed as one of the stories in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts , Accommodation Jindabyne takes the strong premise of that story and then steadily builds upon it as scripter Beatrix Christian and director Ray Lawrence ( Lantana ) carefully unveil bits of character back-story that fuel the onscreen drama with increasing intensity. Accommodation Jindabyne, for those wondering, is the name of the rural town where our characters reside. In fact, it was also the name of the nearby settlement which was abandoned some years ago when a river was dammed up and the town turned into a lake. And like that long-lost version of Accommodation Jindabyne, which we’re reminded still exists under the murky water when a fisherman pulls up a still-working alarm clock from the depths, the residents of the transplanted Accommodation Jindabyne also have secrets lying in wait, ready to reappear when least expected. The film starts off in full horror mode, as a cranky old fisherman type (Chris Haywood) is introduced on the abandoned, dusty roads of the out-of-the-way town. He’s stalking a young Aboriginal woman (Tatea Reilly), eventually forcing her to stop her car so that he can hurl insults and lunatic ravings at her. A jump-cut then takes us out of the horror film mindset, to which we will barely return again, as the cast proper is introduced and the stage is fully set for Carver’s observations on the slippery slope of morality.
