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Catherine and Matthew Parker are trying to adjust to their new life in the remote Australian desert town of Nathgari. They are pleasant but keep to themselves, unwilling to get close to anyone. But their lives are flung into crisis when they discover their two teenage kids, Tommy and Lily, have mysteriously disappeared just before a massive dust storm hits. With temperatures rising and the chances of survival plummeting with each passing day, Catherine and Matthew find themselves pushed to the brink as they struggle to survive the mystery of their children';;s fate.
Director Kim Farrant goes for a feeling that's as harsh, unforgiving, and wild as the land she lets the camera linger on, and it's the right idea when handling the potential melodrama of the material.
She is as invigorated by her missing daughter's sexuality as her husband is terrified. It's an interesting enough subtext, but foregrounded, it's not enough to carry the muddled movie that ensues.
It certainly provides Kidman with some meaty, twisted material. But the film abandons the viewer in the end, leaving the audience as lost as those kids.
A shift in focus from a potentially jittery thriller to a humdrum, psychological analysis of a dislocated family becomes the narrative driving force and given the rich backdrop, it appears a great opportunity has been severely missed.
Kidman's best performances have often been as grieving moms (Dead Calm, The Others, Rabbit Hole) and here she provides the flaccid movie's sole flash of daring and unpredictability.
Director Kim Farrant's debut feature is beautifully shot and offers some powerful, well-acted moments from a strong cast, but it's just relentlessly dreary.
While director Kim Farrant superbly captures the haunting, parched beauty of the Aussie interior in her debut feature, she stumbles when it comes to the emotional landscape, with the movie flickering uncertainly in tone.
Secrets and lies is the name of the game, in other words, as this taut but sinister ensemble piece turns the screws in what is an intelligent, all-engrossing - and indeed Irish-produced - film.