★★★½
“Australia, American style.”
Although this is very much an Australian movie, in both setting and characters, it feels quite a bit out of place there. We begin with a school shooting in which twenty students are killed. It would be utterly unprecedented there. According to this article, Australia’s most recent school shooting occurred back in May 7, 2012. It adds, “No one was injured.” Well, that’s kinda weak, isn’t it? I was reliably informed, everything in Australia is trying to kill you. Anyway, ex-soldier and police officer Samantha Romans (Garner) is first on the scene here, but fails to engage the active shooter. Her teenage son, Tim, is one of the victims. Inevitably, questions are asked of her in the aftermath. Not least by ambitious journalist Jamie Connard (Tolj), who negotiates a lucrative contract to write about events.
One condition: she needs to get Romans to tell her side of events. Initially, the cop won’t speak to the writer, so Connard ups the ante, posting an online video vilifying Romans and blaming her for Tim’s death. The journo’s husband, Greg (Cousins) is appalled, and asks her to stop. But ambition and greed overpower her common sense, especially because the tactic seems to have worked, Samantha agreeing to meet Jamie. Except… the policewoman doesn’t show up, and when the scribe returns home, she finds Greg and their daughter missing. She soon gets a phone-call from Samantha, and has to begin a hunt which is intended to push to and beyond her mental limits.
And, perhaps, teach her something about what her prospective subject went through on that traumatic day at the school. For in certain ways, it feels a little bit like a sister to The Hitcher, with someone having their life utterly upended by an unstoppable force. Trauma as twisted, Nietzschean life-coaching, if you will: what does not kill you, makes you stronger. The main difference is, there, the victim was picked for no particular reason. Here, it’s very specific, and to be honest, Connard does seem like a bit of a bitch, particularly in the early going. But by the end, she and her family have been put completely through the wringer, and it’s hard not to empathize with them.
However, you also gradually learn about Romans’ past as well, although we know early on she has lost her husband and another child, before Tim. The specifics, beyond that, are likely grimmer than you would have expected, or even imagined in a nightmare, to the point I wondered how she could have continued to function. While the two lead performances are very good, it does have some pacing issues. Where The Hitcher was absolutely relentless, this does on occasion grind to a halt and become static and chatty. In the main though, it remains a strong, if extremely dark, thriller, pitting two women against each other, both of whom are not the kind of characters you see often on-screen.
Dir: Scott Major
Star: Nadine Garner, Samantha Tolj, Brett Cousins, Damian Walshe-Howling
a.k.a. Darklands