Very nicely assembled by the director, Dean O'Flaherty. Misses being gripping because of the script by writer, Dean O'Flaherty.
In its sluggishness, it's slightly weird suburbanites, its focus on a taciturn young boy with his ever-ready camera, and its terrifying secrets -- all leading to violence that erupts in blood -- it reminds me a little of "American Beauty," but without the sometimes sly wit. It also is reminiscent of the superior "Lantana," another Australian film about a missing person but filled with the self confidence that the crew and cast have when they know they're making a thoughtful movie.
A girl disappears. She may have run away but Suzy, with her long blond tresses and unlimbered limbs, convinces the puppy-eyed fourteen-year-old Danny that she's been abducted by a serial murder who lives down the block in house number 46. Suzy uses her plentiful wiles to coax Danny into poking around number 46.
What Danny finds is a woman who is afraid to leave the house. Her husband would do "something dangerous" if she left or if she were seen talking to Danny on the doorstep.
The neighborhood is pustular with mysteries. Nobody is really happy. But nobody seems willing to talk about the source of that unhappiness.
The bloodshed comes just before the secrets are revealed. What I mean is -- it's all secrecy and innuendo until the last ten minutes, then, as in an Agatha Christie story, all is suddenly revealed. It's all over in a twinkling. And while some of what is revealed is improbable, some other stuff is outrageous, unless it's all being made up by the narrator who takes over to give us the conclusion. There are moments when I wonder if I'm unbalanced but I'm a paragon of stability compared to these ordinary looking folk.
O'Flaherty as director is fine. The tension builds slowly throughout. And he takes moments to show us some of the local Adelaide color -- mauve blossoms on a bush, a spider web, a centipede. Somehow he turns them all ominous.
But I wish he'd spared us that nonsensical climax. The pieces of the plot all fall together but the pieces are too fantastic to be believed. Next time, give the guy a good script.
In its sluggishness, it's slightly weird suburbanites, its focus on a taciturn young boy with his ever-ready camera, and its terrifying secrets -- all leading to violence that erupts in blood -- it reminds me a little of "American Beauty," but without the sometimes sly wit. It also is reminiscent of the superior "Lantana," another Australian film about a missing person but filled with the self confidence that the crew and cast have when they know they're making a thoughtful movie.
A girl disappears. She may have run away but Suzy, with her long blond tresses and unlimbered limbs, convinces the puppy-eyed fourteen-year-old Danny that she's been abducted by a serial murder who lives down the block in house number 46. Suzy uses her plentiful wiles to coax Danny into poking around number 46.
What Danny finds is a woman who is afraid to leave the house. Her husband would do "something dangerous" if she left or if she were seen talking to Danny on the doorstep.
The neighborhood is pustular with mysteries. Nobody is really happy. But nobody seems willing to talk about the source of that unhappiness.
The bloodshed comes just before the secrets are revealed. What I mean is -- it's all secrecy and innuendo until the last ten minutes, then, as in an Agatha Christie story, all is suddenly revealed. It's all over in a twinkling. And while some of what is revealed is improbable, some other stuff is outrageous, unless it's all being made up by the narrator who takes over to give us the conclusion. There are moments when I wonder if I'm unbalanced but I'm a paragon of stability compared to these ordinary looking folk.
O'Flaherty as director is fine. The tension builds slowly throughout. And he takes moments to show us some of the local Adelaide color -- mauve blossoms on a bush, a spider web, a centipede. Somehow he turns them all ominous.
But I wish he'd spared us that nonsensical climax. The pieces of the plot all fall together but the pieces are too fantastic to be believed. Next time, give the guy a good script.