Strangerland (2015)

Excellent but underrated film

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Beautiful landscape and a chance to make a complex and intriguing movie. Instead, the movie was a confusing, pretentious exercise in overacting. The movie never gives a clue what is the point and why should be we believe anyone or anything.Nicole Kidman plays a mother whose daughter has become wild and uncontrollable. Instead of behaving like a mature adult, she is promiscuous and walks through the town naked. Even nowadays, that will get you banned from a small town forever. Why was she bruised? The movie never explains. What happened to the daughter? No one knows. Maybe she got away from her family and became a successful millionaire. An Adult beats up the neighbor's kid, but the police chief does not arrest him. On what Planet would that happen? Is the police chief covering up his own role. He shreds the evidence that might indict the neighbor's kid. When does this take place? If it is 2015, once again, I am sure Australia has the equivalent of Amber Alerts. You bet that some local sheriff would not be running things. There would be Media and every agency in the Australian Government would be in town. I guess movies is the one place that reality can be suspended for the plot. What plot?! This movie was a mess. Was Nicole Kidman trying to win an Oscar? She certainly was overacting.

A family finds their dull life in a rural outback town rocked after their two teenage children disappear into the desert, sparking disturbing rumors of their past. As far as acting goes Nicole Kidman, Joseph Fiennes and Hugo Weaving are really good unfortunately the script and the plot aren't and here is how the director explains the character of Catherine and it's characters in regular: "People also sexualize stress, grief, loneliness, anger, longing, fear… we deal with crisis in many different ways… and sex is just one of them that we address in "Strangerland." This movie has one of the most awkward sex scenes i have ever seen between Kidman and Fiennes that comes out very weird also the first time Rae (Weaving) we basically see him having sex with this woman and later Kidman tries to seduce both him and and this kid Burtie and although one of the kids does get found the other one we as an audience we never learn what happens if you see movies such as Prisoners or Taken about child kidnapping you will see how perfectly they work in here both parents are insane that in times remember that their kids were missing. Sure the acting, the pacing and the locations are fine but that can't save a troubled script with a plot and characters that make zero sense. I'll give Strangerland a 6.1/10

A dusty and stuffy Australian drama by first-time director Kim Farrant, who echoes the Outback-set aura of some of her country's best films—Picnic at Hanging Rock, Walkabout, and A Cry in the Dark. Nicole Kidman, who's rarely spoken in her native accent on screen a handful of times since her film debut plays in a perfect way the role of Catherine, a mother to two teenagers in an Aussie desert town. Kidman's best performances have often been as grieving moms and on this occasion provides another excellent acting. On a visual scale, Strangerland naturally takes advantage of the landscape's harsh light, and its quality rises with an arrestingly shot sandstorm happening around the movie's halfway mark. Fiennes as well acts (almost) perfectly but what in my opinion matters the most is the suitable location and atmosphere.

The Parkers move to a remote Australian desert town. Matthew (Joseph Fiennes) is a pharmacist and has a struggling marriage with Catherine (Nicole Kidman). They moved after their promiscuous underage daughter Lily had an affair with her teacher and Matthew beat him up. Lily continues to be sexually loose in the new town hanging out with the skaters. Their son Tommy sleepwalks and Lily follows him out into the night. The next day, Catherine discovers that neither of them have been going to school and both are missing. A sand storm strikes. They go to the local sheriff David Rae (Hugo Weaving). The family's dysfunction and the town's darker sides are slowly revealed.I can understand all the hate. This movie starts promising some kind of mystery but it slowly switches to something different. The weirdness starts with Catherine aggressively initiating sex while her children is missing. It is really off-putting until I quickly realized that this movie is about Catherine who is borderline. Matthew is at times her enabler and has his own volatile issues. Lily's wild nature has an origin and their troubles started well before the events of this movie. This does continue with the mystery of the disappearances but this isn't solely about that. The tone is atmospheric and off-kilter. My biggest problem for me is that the movie is too ambitious. There are lots of side characters but I find them all fascinating. It's a strange movie but I like its ambitious differentness.