Jindabyne

Star Review

Raymond Carver’s story, ‘So Much Water So Close to Home’, was first transferred to the screen as a segment of Robert Altman’s masterful Short Cuts. Here, the celebrated Australian director Ray Lawrence revisits the tale, transposes it to Jindabyne, New South Wales, and lets it unfold more leisurely but with much more power. Stewart (an excellent Gabriel Byrne) leads a party of recreational fishermen who discover a murdered Aborigine girl floating in the shallow waters of the river. After some soul searching, the men tether the body to the bank and continue with their trip until they are ready to go home. On discovering their callousness, Stewart’s fragile wife Claire (Laura Linney, also superb) finds her life shaken to its core, and is driven to make amends with the girl’s family.

By making the dead girl an Aborigine, Lawrence gives Jindabyne a political edge that was not part of the original story’s agenda, but it works supremely well. The result is a film Carver would have been proud of.

Julian Upton on 17th August 2007

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Film Description

A highly-acclaimed adult drama based on a short story by Raymond Carver (also adapted as part of Altman's Short Cuts). A group of men on a fishing trip find an Aboriginal girl's dead body and decide to ignore it and continue fishing instead of telling the authorities immediately.

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Film Details

Cast

Gabriel Byrne, Laura Linney

Technical Details