Jindabyne
Posted on May 5, 2007 at 11:09 am
B| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for disturbing images, language and some nudity. |
| Profanity: | Some very strong language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, smoking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Character is killed, nude and wounded dead body, references to rape, brief domestic violence |
| Diversity Issues: | Race and gender differences a theme of the movie, some homophobic humor |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 2007 |
Parents should know that this film deals with very disturbing themes, including the discovery of the dead body of a young woman who may have been raped. There are scenes of nudity and graphic wounds. Characters drink (sometimes to excess), smoke, use very strong and crude language, and have tense and unhappy confrontations. There are references to mental illness and the death of a little girl’s mother. Children are in peril. They also get in trouble for bringing a knife to school and killing the class pet. The situation in the film raises issues of gender, race, ethnic, and cultural differences as well as differences of opinion about how to respond to painful and confusing circumstances.
Families who see this movie should talk about why the different characters felt differently about the right way to respond to the discovery of the body. What do their different attitudes tell us about what was most important to each of them? What is the role of the children in helping to tell the story?
Families who like this movie will also like The Vanishing
Nell, are you familiar with Lantana? It’s an award-winning Australian Hyperlink film by the same director, with Anthony LaPaglia.
Toby, I am a huge Anthony LaPaglia fan and have heard that Lantana is excellent but have not seen it. I’ll keep an eye out for it. Thanks!
Just out of interest (and doing my part for the Australian film industry), have you had any luck tracking it down?
Also, what can you tell me about the version of the story done in the Robert Altman film Short Cuts. It’s been on my must-see list for over a year, but it doesn’t seem to be available in Region 4.
Not yet, Toby, sorry, but I did manage to track down “The Castle” and loved it. And I do hope you see “Short Cuts,” which has a much briefer and even bleaker version interwoven with several other stories.
I’ve seen Short Cuts and read the short stories that inspired it, but I have to say I that Jindabyne’s version of So Much Water So Close to Home was the better adaptation, just because it spends sufficient time on Claire’s backstory and the strain Stuart’s actions put on their marriage.
Apart from that, Short Cuts was the better film, although as Hyperlink films go my favourites are still Lantana and Magnolia, because I feel it did more with nine main characters than Short Cuts did with 22 in the same running time. And besides, raining frogs beats earthquake any day of the week!
A great comment as always, Toby! Thanks. I had not heard the term “hyperlink films” before, and it is perfect. And you can’t go wrong with raining frogs!