Jindabyne explores the guilt and shame of a person when a young woman is raped, murdered and disposed of – even when they’re not the one responsible. This Australian film, based on Raymond Carver’s short story “So Much Water So Close to Home” (previously adapted into one of the segments in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts), is a mature and often frustrating drama about the dangers of inaction. Superficially, Jindabyne poses itself as a thriller, looks like a thriller, and creeps up ominously like a thriller. But it is anything but.
This is genius, because it uses generic thriller conventions to support its dramatic character study. Rather than the typical pedestrian look of similar muted dramas, director Ray Lawrence injects Jindabyne with style, using extreme close-ups and sweeping landscape photography. With shots of a serial killer lurking around town and the possibility of him striking at any moment being dangled in front of the audience; the film teases us with the promise of a shocking tragic climax. Yet, the film plods along almost uneventfully, showing scenes about family problems rather than the “true” plot. The tragedy turns out to be the further strain in the characters’ relationships, and the suspense is in how they can cope with what’s going on.
It’s almost as if there’s another more generic Joel Schumacher-type thriller at work somewhere else, and this is a collection of the what-you-don’t-see moments. You know that one guy in those cop movies who finds the body of the victim and then is not seen again for the rest of the movie? This is the story of that guy.
Set in a small Australian near the outback called Jindabyne, a tight-knit community where everybody knows everyone, Gabriel Byrne plays Stewart, a broken father who has grown apart from his wife Claire (Laura Linney). As they try to maintain their shattered family life, their relationship continues to become estranged with every rising problem. One day, Stewart goes on a 3-day fishing trip with his buddies, where in the river they find the floating corpse of a woman of Aborigine descent. For unknown reasons, the beauty of the scenery cast a spell on them and they decide to complete their trip before reporting the murder. A backlash soon snowballs in town, with the Aborigine community crying foul.
It’s a murder mystery without the mystery. The movie cuts out Carver’s sense of secrecy from the get-go: It shows us who the killer is in the first scene of the movie, just to get it out of the way. In Carver’s original Claire-narrated story, there is ambiguity in who’s responsible for the murder, which is not so in Jindabyne. The movie is more concerned with Stewart’s growing denial and stress as the media declares him the villain, and even accusing him of hate crime. But the real turmoil is within Claire, who’s so shaken with guilt over Stewart’s action that she becomes obsessed with making amends to the victim’s family and forgets her own. Laura Linney’s incredible performance shows a woman who can’t seem to be at peace no matter how she tries.
The story is indeed “so close to home,” as it can happen to any one of us regardless of who we are or where we live. While it’s easy to dismiss cautionary tales of crime by assuring yourself that you won’t commit them, nobody can escape the accusing finger of neglect. And though you may argue that there was nothing you could have done, certain circles would still hold you as much at fault as the real crooks. Jindabyne vividly captures the breaking point of human emotions when faced with this situation, and at times it is heartbreaking to watch how much these people have to suffer.
"Jindabyne" opens April 27, 2007 and is rated . . Written by Beatrix Christian, Raymond Carver (story).
