Blueback

Beautiful Australian drama, based on an anonymous novel, Australia once again starring in beautiful images of its hydro system, and the marine biography, with meticulous and talented photography... And curiously the following year a Blue Grouper known as Gus, who swims alongside divers, was mercilessly killed by a man with a spear who was only fined US$500, a beautiful and necessary film, simple and efficient...

Abby is a child who becomes friends with a magnificent wild Blue Groper while diving. When Abby realizes that the fish is under threat, she is inspired by her activist mother, Dora, and faces poachers to save her friend. Thus begins her long journey to save the coral reefs.

Along Australia's vast and beautiful ocean coastline Abby is a marine biologist assessing the health of coral reefs and fisheries. Just when the future for the ocean and its wildlife looks bleak and sad to her, Abby receives an urgent call about the health of her estranged mother, Dora. Abbey's return home brings her back in touch not only with her mom but with her roots and why she chose to study the ocean in the first place. There are flashbacks to when Abby was a girl, first learning to swim and dive with her mom, her inspirational artwork, and a friendly and sensitive blue grouper she once knew. As Abby reforges the connections with her mom, nature, the ocean, and to all their combined wonders, it renews her sense of hope.

The immense blue vistas, colorful coral reefs, and spectacular sunsets of Australia combine with interesting characters and touching relationships both human and animal. "It is a passionate call to arms to save the oceans," said director Robert Connolly who was present at this world premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Blueback is not preachy and does not take a doomsday approach, but it reveals many of the challenges that oceans face and remedies for a brighter future such as marine reserves and sustainable harvesting. The film is based on a story by Tim Winter, who is popular in Australia. The gigantic blue grouper ("groper" in the Canadian write up about the film, LOL) is a puppet and is not created through computer animation. The relationship chemistry and dialogues are cheesy at times, but overall Blueback is a well-made, timely, and inspiring film.

I have enjoyed previous Tim Winton book adaptations for the screen, but BLUEBACK is disappointing. While the film stays true to the book's messages of environmentalism and empowerment, it took too long to get there and didn't offer a deep enough story to keep me invested. BLUEBACK follows the journey of a young girl, Abby (Mia Wasikowska), who discovers a wild blue grouper while diving and is inspired to take action towards preserving Australia's coral reefs from destruction. She becomes an enthusiastic crusader for protecting the delicate ecosystem and its inhabitants.

The visuals are stunning, with beautiful shots of the ocean and its creatures, but they don't make up for the simplistic narrative. The movie focuses heavily on Abby and Dora's relationship, yet there is not enough development or depth to it. There could have been more exploration of the other characters who play significant roles in the story.

BLUEBACK failed to make an impression on me with its lack of narrative complexity. While its messages of environmentalism and empowerment will appeal to some viewers, its slow pacing and lack of story make it an overall underwhelming experience.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Blueback" is a story about Abby, a child who befriends a magnificent wild blue groper while diving. When Abby realizes that the fish is under threat, she takes inspiration from her activist Mum, Dora, and takes on poachers to save her friend. Tim Winton novel called "Blueback" was a book I read as a child and I remember enjoying it quite a lot. Director Robert Connolly clearly has talent on directing and camerawork as this movie has really amazing camerawork of the Oceania landscapes and some cool underwater sequences. Each scenes that shows the fishes, reefs and ocean grounds were beautiful and felt like you are inside of the ocean and experiencing it. Unfortunately the film falls onto the example of style over substance as the film carries a disjointed narrative and unreliable structure.

I understand the purpose of each characters arches but the film doesn't do a great job on developing the characters as the characters didn't feel properly fleshed out. The performances were pretty good but they weren't really able to carry the film due to the lack of character development and poor structure of the story. Many themes of environmentalism and save the ocean are explored but Connolly doesn't seem to understand how to approach these topics properly and they fell all over the place. For a children's film, the film does take a very long time to get to the point and from someone who enjoys slow pace films, Blueback doesn't feel very earned.

The runtime doesn't feel justified as there were several moments that felt like filler, some of the dialogue was pretty bad and the disjointed execution doesn't help to make the film interesting. Winton's books are pretty interesting and have chances to be adapted into films but Blueback isn't one of the good adaptations unfortunately. Overall, there are great camerawork and production throughout but the positives are overshadowed by it's negatives.

Rating: C.

Abby, a young woman working as a marine biologist, recalls her teenage years with her mother in Western Australia. She is introduced to the diverse marine life in the bay she grew up in, makes friends with a blue groper and helps her mother fight to protect the bay's marine life from encroaching property developers.

A straight-forward, heart-felt film with a pleasant, leisurely pace about pursuing a passion to protect something you care about, aimed at a young audience. The flash-back narrative structure is nostalgic and makes clear why the adult Abby is working to protect the bleaching coral reef, but it obviates any emotional or dramatic impact from either time-period. The underwater photography of the ocean life, and the actors interacting with it, is very beautifully shot, tranquil and convincing of the film's thesis, to protect ocean life. Though short on depth and complexity the film successfully depicts the simplicity and integrity of spending your life caring for your immediate environment.