Mystery Road

A good, slow-burning mystery drama about the low-key drug circle of an Australian outback town. A young girl is found dead and it's Jay Swan's case to find out who did it and why it happened. Jay has a daughter that is friends with the deceased girl. The film tediously builds until a not-so-climactic shootout mostly with characters we've not seen before. Hugo Weaving plays a good, if underused, mysterious detective called Johnno. The film seems slightly underdeveloped, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. It has a raw nature to it, and I adore the uncomplicated, dusty plains of wild dog country.

The cinematography is lovely. Probably the best part of Mystery Road. The score is non-existant for half of the movie, then slightly poignant for the other half. Overall, it's a good Australian film, but it suffers slightly from a lack of action. Although I was gripped by the stellar script which relies on its subtlety and is devoid of flamboyance and high-minded ideas. There are a few great spoken stand-offs.

It was nice to see the Bruce Spence again (the guy from Mad Max II: Road Warrior).

B