G Connolly

It's quite disturbing, however very well made and excellently acted. The most major achievement of this film is its realism in narrative, far away from the typical story book and movie mock-realisms we see often. By this I mean that the script perhaps completely manages to to escape the idea of good / bad, the character to back vs the one to revile. There is sympathy for everyone, and it is so refreshing not to be be kind of indicated by the production into damning or praising x, y or characters. For this almost therapeutic service to an audience fatigued in the characteristic ways of the movies, I highly, highly recommend this film. All the actors give first rate performances, but Noomi Rapace who more or less carries the film from start to finish is quite amazing.

Very engaging, overall an authentic and spiritual experience. It's very well conceived and made. Such simple, successful story telling (marvellously, plainly acted) probably has never been achieved by Hollywood before, actually, even in the silent films age. A great achievement. For the technical boating critics - let it go, though it's probably hard. It's not a technical film. It has nothing to do with that side of things, so the technical details don't actually matter. I also estimate the film was envisioned to be decades ago, maybe the 1970s, from the sofa decor in the boat. (Which might explain the simple communications details, or an elderly sailor's reluctance to adapt might as well. But this end of things, again, isn't really much relevant anyway within the purpose of the film.)

Posturing, empty, immature, this film pretends to be something when it's never more than an extended episode of any faceless, Australian crime series. It's not the kind of film which could handle themes as you would expect of a movie as opposed to yet another a series episode, nor could present some kind of human interest. It all felt very fake and shallow. I think it's supposed to have atmosphere. Actually that amounts to just a lot of aerial drone scenes of not much, and for example someone driving to eerie music, in between really plodding formulaic development of the crime plot. I had guessed who the killer was for much of the film though hadn't worked out the whys exactly, as everything was connected to an historical murder. The end was a major anticlimax, and would still have been whether or not you had any idea who the killer was. The reasons behind the murders had not been developed or suggested until close to the very end, so it's a case of not really giving a damn. On the whole, the impression is that the actors thought they were something more than their written characters and skills allow. Also the film tries to seem more than the sum of its parts, but unsuccessfully. The screenplay is unimpressive. Even when there is occasional good acting, like from a potential love interest later in the film, I wondered why she was bothering. Maybe the book was a whole lot better but dry is an understatement for this dull film. It's a little scammy also by leading you along through it, not exactly with suspense but because you may suppose there's something to learn. The best way would be to give up but it seems that the film knows that and is keeping you hanging on cynically. I found that it's really difficult to care for any of the characters at all, or the place or whodunnit in the end. I just wished I hadn't been drawn to watch the worid of that film by adverts for it.