'The Dry' film review: Small-town suspicions, lies & secrets upend a wilting Aussie village
A detective haunted by a decades-old crime tries to prove the innocence of a childhood friend in the mystery thriller 'The Dry' (in theaters and on demand starting May 21).
In short: Federal agent Aaron Falk (Eric Bana, 'Munich') returns to his drought-stricken hometown after a tragic murder-suicide. His return opens a decades-old wound: the unsolved death of a teenage girl ... who was last known to be with Falk. Genevieve O'Reilly and Keir O'Donnell also star.
Set against a punishing draught that has worn down the spirit of a struggling Australian farming, 'The Dry' finds a weary man returning to his weathered and tired hometown of Kiewarra. It's the type of rural community that measures time in terms of the number of beers consumed rather than hours. A prolonged dry spell has taken its toll on the farming town - to the point where the defeated town could digest the horrible notion that a man would kill his wife and child before killing himself out of despair and financial pressure. This is a parched town in existential fear for its own survival - with nature wilting its harvests and the future of farming in doubt.
For all its layers of mystery, 'The Dry' is fundamentally a man versus society conflict. From the opening moments, the film establishes the brutality of the tragic apparent murder-suicide - and how an unsolved death has haunted Falk for decades and turned most of the town against him. Although Falk grew up in Kiewarra, time has made him an outsider but lingering suspicion hasn't made Falk any less of a pariah. The story gives the federal policeman every possible out in the world to leave the murder alone and just go back to his life as a big city detective, but something elusive keeps him in Kiewarra. It's this internal conflict within Falk that makes him a compelling protagonist - even amidst outright hostility toward him, his detective instincts keep him pulling at the case's loose threads.
It's truly remarkable how unsensational and refreshingly grounded this layered murder-mystery is in tone and plot turns. 'The Dry' resists the pull toward arch characters or melodramatic twists. If anything, there's an ordinariness to the truths Falk uncovers in this unassuming little town. Co-writer and director Robert Connolly's adaptation is a good old fashioned, boots-on-the-ground detective story. There's no crazy machinations at work here - Falk only finds sadly relatable personal secrets: the type at the heart of any true crime news show like 'Dateline' or '48 Hours.' It’s obvious the novel this film is adapted from is a page-turner in the best way possible - a gripping film that quietly wrests its grip on the audience and doesn’t let go until the closing moments.
Final verdict: 'The Dry' is a smartly composed whodunit with nature, small-move twists set against a textured and beleaguered backdrop.
Score: 4/5
'The Dry' opens in theaters and on demand May 21. This dramatic mystery is rated R for violence, and language throughout and has a running time of 117 minutes.
