Strangerland

The Parkers, a dysfunctional family in the Australian desert, discover their two teenage children disappear without a trace.

The father, Matthew Parker (Joseph Fiennes), had once beat up a teacher in another town for having sex with his daughter Lily (Madison Brown). The mother Catherine Parker (Nicole Kidman) protects her children as best she could, but has difficulty doing it as Matthew seems uninterested but wants to be strict especially with Lily (who dresses provocatively to annoy her father), but gives in to Catherine most of the time. The son, Tommy Parker (Nicholas Hamilton), never says much and has a habit of waking up and walking off into the night, but always returned. Until now. Both Matthew and Nicole sleep in separate bedrooms.

This is a strange story and we really never know what is going on with all the characters as the director holds too much to his vest. Everyone in here is a stranger to everyone else. Hence the title Strangerland, I suppose. Anyway it fits. As we get into this, we do see attempts at being friendly and communicative, but still a lot is held back. When a question is asked, it takes forever for a character to respond. (that's really annoying) Yes, Strangerland is a very good title for this movie. (Indeed)

I don't know if Joseph Fiennes is miscast in here or the director has him act the way he does. He never smiles and seems unconcerned about the missing children until much later, and it's like his wife is someone he wishes wasn't there. He gives in to her sexual frustrations and afterwards it's like he just changed his shirt.

Of course the townspeople have their rumors about the family and what happened to the children, but many do turn out to walk the brushes to find them. Some say aliens took them; and some say they aren't missing, they just ran away from their parents; and still others say "the land" took them" whatever that means. Then Tommy is found, but cannot talk.

We do see a canyon many times as this director seems to be enamored with it. When we first saw it, we thought maybe the children are there or not there but clues are left. But no, the director just liked the flyover in the canyon. Also this director seemed to like a rising sun with red skyline in the morning in the upper half of the screen while the lower half was in darkness. We see that often. Or was that a setting sun in the evening? Hard to tell as the next scenes were always inside a building

Best performances were from Nicole Kidman and from Madison Brown as Lily. (ha, I knew you would say that).

This was longer than it should have been. It's like someone took a short story and tried to make an epic out of it.

Think you know what happened to Lily? A very big clue was given earlier. (5/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes, 2-times. Nudity: Yes, when Catherine walks down the middle of town. Language: No.

The best things about this movie are the cinematography, the acting (despite the lame script) and the beautiful and haunting outback locales. The story is so strung out...so stretched. The whole thing could have been told in 30 minutes. As it is the story is padded out with long and luxurious takes of the outback, the stereotypical outback town (of which there are very few these days) and the side story of Kidman's character losing it big time.

I am thoroughly sick and tired of Australian films these days (yep-I'm Australian). They tell off-beat boring stories or focus far too much on the outback that the rest of the world must think we all live in the desert with koalas and kangaroos for pets, speak with an appalling twang and drink copious amounts of beer whilst swatting away huge flies.

Here's the reality... Most Australians live in large cities or suburbs not unlike LA (I know LA so I can compare our cities quite well). Few of our films deal with our cosmopolitan and multi-racial population. Aussie films either show whitebread Aussie families or Aboriginal families in distress. No mention or filming of the other ethnic groups here.

Now whilst trying to tell tales about your culture is a laudable thing, to make a film truly internationally interesting it needs to sell to a wider audience otherwise our film industry will always be relegated to the quirky sidelines while Hollywood conquers all.

Just taking a guess here but whoever wrote the movie never had teens go missing? Guessing?

Big names in a movie makes you think there is substance, but it just lays flat as a pancake and it makes no sense. No idea how so much hot sex plays into thIs but - yea not realistic in the least. It comes across as creepy and weird.

Just pass on this movie you won't be missing anything.

Trouble is stirred up in a stifling hot Australian desert town after the two children of new arrivals Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes go missing...and everyone who came into contact with them becomes a suspect in their disappearance. Well-acted study of stunted small town lives, with Nicole Kidman particularly gripping as the sad, desperate mother of the kids (a promiscuous teenage girl and her restless younger brother). Some of the drama has a prickly edge, and the dialogue is strong, however the supporting characters are not a terribly interesting lot, while the simmering tempers in this dust bowl town are not used to heighten the tension (director Kim Farrant treats it as subtext, preferring to focus on the embattled married couple). Repetitive aerial shots of the mountain terrain and surrounding desert grow tiresome (arty yet unrevealing), but the complicated scenario is enough of a draw for admirers of character studies. ** from ****

Tensions flair between a couple living in the outback when their son and daughter disappear during the night in this Australian mystery thriller. The film is drooped in atmosphere with eerie aerial shots that emphasise the isolated nature of the outskirts town, some very moody skies and an absolutely haunting music score. There is a constant sense of something sinister afoot, and as the two parents learn increasingly shocking things about their children in their quest to find them, their disappearance serves as a catalyst: a wake-up call for just how out of control their kids are and how they have failed as parents. Everything progresses at a deliberately slow pace and it is understandable why some might not take kindly to the film since it plays out as more of a Michelangelo Antonioni mystery movie than a standard Hollywood thriller. There is, however, a lot going on beneath the surface and the chief drawback of the film, if anything, is how elusive this all remains by the end. There is the slightest hint of childhood sexual abuse, the vaguest suggestion of the kids being afraid of their own parents - but frustratingly, nothing is ever clear. The ambiguity with regards to their daughter's disappearance is, on the other hand, an excellent touch, highlighting that the film is primarily about the parents and their gradual, mutual realisation that they are not entirely satisfied with their lives and each other. Indeed, while the small town setting initially seems to represent freedom and escapism from past mistakes, in the end, the setting only forces them to confront their inner demons face-on.