Jindabyne

It's the rare director that can set a tone in the opening of a film and maintain that same tone through another 100 or so minutes. Ray Lawrence manages to keep you miserably uncomfortable from the first tense minutes as you watch something bad about to happen right through to the aching end of this haunting and beautiful film. I found myself biting my nails and squirming all the way.

Jindabyne happens to be set in a particularly bleak but gorgeous part of Australia, but it could have been anywhere. The central story line is one of four good old boys on a fishing trip who happen upon a young woman's corpse in the river, and opt to fish first and report later. Well, she was already dead now, wasn't she? The consequences of this thoughtless act then avalanche through the town - made all the more poignant by the fact that the dead girl is aboriginal (read this Mexican, Black, or Minority of Your Choice.)

Stellar performances from all concerned, including Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne, should be noted but it is the screenplay and direction that make this film amazing. Every character has an open wound; they are all profoundly human and all questioning their own motives in every tidy scene. Lawrence doesn't waste a minute or a line. In the end, you feel you know these people and you hurt right along with them. That's genius. Here's another review.