The movie's remaining revelations build slowly into a set of surprisingly powerful emotional beats.
Jindabyne (2007)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:13
Rotten:13
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: Jindabyne's disparate themes may not quite cohere, but the film features fine performances from Linney and Byrne.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for disturbing images, language and some nudity.
Runtime: 2 hrs 3 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Apr 27, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $224,114
Synopsis: On an annual fishing trip, in isolated high country, Stewart, Carl, Rocco and Billy ('the Kid') find a girl's body in the river. It's too late in the day for them to hike back to the road and... On an annual fishing trip, in isolated high country, Stewart, Carl, Rocco and Billy ('the Kid') find a girl's body in the river. It's too late in the day for them to hike back to the road and report their tragic find. The next morning, instead of making the long trek back, they spend the day fishing. Their decision to stay on at the river is a little mysterious — almost as if the place itself is exerting some kind of magic over them. When the men finally return home to Jindabyne, and report finding the body, all hell breaks loose. Their wives can't understand how they could have gone fishing with the dead girl right there in the water — she needed their help. The men are confused — the girl was already dead, there was nothing they could do for her. Stewart's wife Claire is the last to know. As details filter out, and Stewart resists talking about what has happened, she is unnerved. There is a callousness about all of this which disturbs her deeply. Stewart is not convinced that he has done anything wrong. Claire's faith in her relationship with her husband is shaken to the core. The fishermen, their wives and their children are suddenly haunted by their own bad spirits. As public opinion builds against the actions of the men, their certainty about themselves and the decision they made at the river is challenged. They cannot undo what they have done. Only Claire understands that something fundamental is not being addressed. She wants to understand and tries to make things right. In her determination Claire sets herself not only against her own family and friends but also those of the dead girl. Her marriage is taken to the brink and her peaceful life with Stewart and their young son hangs in the balance. --© Sony Pictures Classics [More]
Starring: Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne, Deborra-Lee Furness, John Howard
Starring: Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne, Deborra-Lee Furness, John Howard, Leah Purcell, Stelios Yiakmis, Alice Garner, Simon Stone, Eva Lazarro, Sean Rees-Wemyss, Tatea Reilly, Betty Lucas, Chris Haywood
Director: Ray Lawrence
Director: Ray Lawrence
Screenwriter: Beatrix Christian
Story: Raymond Carver
Producer: Catherine Jarman
Composer: Paul Kelly, Dan Luscombe
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Get This Movie
Reviews for Jindabyne
The frustration here is that none of this leads anywhere. Perhaps that is the point, that some mysteries are never solved, but Jindabyne could give us a little more to work with.
Clearly, in his bid to repurpose Carver's story, Lawrence misses the writer's prevailing ethos: the sense of self-contained internal misery and that haunting quality of being hopelessly human.
[Director] Lawrence's compelling little film pursues a deep question: why people make the choices that they do - and how they then live with those decisions, right or wrong, weak or strong.
The resolution Jindabyne eventually offers feels small and safe. The movie goes out with a whimper.
Intelligent, superbly acted and finely observed, but Jindabyne suffers from too many extraneous elements and from a story that doesn't land with enough force or purpose.
It's hard not to admire the film's confidence in making the story its own, and Ms. Linney, a mix of iron will and emotional fragility, delivers her usual complex performance.
Too many extraneous elements have been added but at the movie's center lies the knotty story of a marriage poisoned by amorality.
Though Linney is the standout, short-shrift should not be given to the rest of the cast, whose roles might be smaller but they're the ones who add a little color to this otherwise dreary vista.
Jindabyne is wonderfully acted by Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne, two first-rate performers working close to the bone and concerned foremost with making an audience understand their characters, as opposed to merely liking them.
Gabriel Byrne is the fisherman who won't interrupt his trip; Laura Lin ney is the wife who finds his actions hard and, finally, horrifying to comprehend. And for the most part it works.
The film is two plodding hours of people abusing themselves, their livers, a corpse, each other and even small animals. Most abused of all is the audience.
We live on the fault line along with these characters, and it is an experience that is not easy to shake off.
It’s not just that the clean, efficient lines of Carver’s story are blurred and tangled. The real flaw is that the movie’s best features -- the aching clarity of its central performances - threaten to be lost in a wilderness of metaphor and mystification.
Jindabyne started with a bad idea and the finished film doesn't do well by it, despite the presence of Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne and several excellent Australian actors.
For all its roiling tensions, Jindabyne is an oddly antiseptic, even repressed, experience.
The result is a mature and challenging motion picture, and something that will stick with viewers after the screen has gone dark.
Latest News for Jindabyne
April 28, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
More...
April 26, 2007:
Critical Consensus: This Film Is "Condemned"; "Next" Vexes; Guess "Invisible," "Kickin' It" Tomatometers!
This week at the movies, we've got clairvoyants ("Next," with Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore), cons ("The Condemned," starring Steve Austin and Vinnie... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Fresh Links
Featured

Take a look at MSN's choices for the Top 10 films of 2009.

What were your favorites? Least favorites? The funniest and scariest? Moviefone wants to know!

Hollywood.com explores why QT's characters resonate so well with audiences.

TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.

Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic



