Only the third feature film Lawrence has directed since the surreal black comedy cult favorite Bliss (1985), Jindabyne marks yet another triumph for the director.
Jindabyne (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:93
Fresh:61
Rotten:32
Average Rating:6.5/10
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
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Reviews for Jindabyne
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.
Most of the new ideas grow naturally enough out of the original material. But they almost invariably amplify Carver's bleak worldview, and in a film that runs for more than two hours, that adds up to an oppressive sit.
A sobering and serious Australian movie that touches the deep places in us that are haunted and colored by love, loss, community, and grief.
Aussie filmmaker Ray Lawrence's debt to Robert Altman in his previous Lantana is made explicit in his new film Jindabyne.
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.
Such is the inherent power of the Carver material that Jindabyne rises above its polemics.
For all its roiling tensions, Jindabyne is an oddly antiseptic, even repressed, experience.
Jindabyne wears its class politics lightly, weaving them into a ghost story about the intimate connection between how we treat our living and our dead that will hover around your shoulders long after you leave the theater.
The result is a mature and challenging motion picture, and something that will stick with viewers after the screen has gone dark.
A soberly, if sluggishly, crafted movie in which the bitterness never stops.
The subplot is the basic difference between men and women, how they handle relationships, and how they handle crises. Probably not a film for everyone, but I enjoyed it.
Could have been tightened up and shortened to be a much stronger film, and it's surprisingly unsatisfying as a whole.
By the end of his films- this idiosyncratic style, complex plotting, and core values about intimacy produce a combination of exhaustion, well-being, and a bit of unease. At the conclusion of "Jindabyne," while Lawrence's torturous journey has given more
Latest News for Jindabyne
April 28, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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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...
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