Eric Bana plays it straight throughout The Dry, the Australian flick that is gathering some serious buzz as it opens across the globe. His character, Aaron Falk, has a colored past in his rural hometown that has haunted the community and him for two decades. Falk heads back to his hometown when his best friend is dead as part of a murder-suicide.
Something isn’t right and the veteran detective from the big city smells it from miles away. But he cannot put his finger on it. He was initially going to stay one day, a week later… he’s still there, still investigating, still in search of the truth. Why The Dry works so brilliantly are because we are really dissecting two murders, one in the present and a tragic drowning back decades prior that the town firmly blamed on Falk from when he was young with his teenage girlfriend at the time, Ellie (BeBe Bettencourt).
The town is convinced he was behind her murder and that was largely why he and his father escaped town and never looked back. Now that his best friend Luke Hadler (Martin Dingle Wall) is assumed the central subject in a murder/suicide, the town’s wayward son has returned with one thing on his mind—justice for that family that died at the hands of someone who he believes is not Luke. Now, solving that angle on the mystery is a whole different ballgame. It’s one thing to have a theory. Given his baggage with the citizenry of this town, this is going to have to rely on good, old-fashioned detective work—lucky for him, that’s his calling.
Along the way, he meets an old friend from their double dating days, Gretchen (Martin Dingle Wall). There’s a spark there, but each knows that when this investigation is over, Aaron will return to Melbourne and his hometown will be in the rearview once again. Aaron simply wants to clear his best friend’s name. There is something much more nefarious at work here. And if it kills him trying, at least he can be proud that he gave it his all.
The backdrop of this outback story is the fact that the community is in the middle of the worst drought in its history. The town and region have not seen rain in over a year. Through the flashbacks where we meet young Luke and Aaron and their girlfriends, they often met in the river and splashed away their summer. The stark contrast to the dried riverbed that exists now is haunting. Almost as shocking as a small town experiencing a murder-suicide where a beloved individual in the community is the prime suspect.
Bana is a busy international actor. He got his start in Australian cinema and must have gotten this script and felt there was no way to not make this movie. It was custom-made for his persona. With his unbridled believability for the audience… coupling that with what he has from the residents of his small hometown, is gospel. There’s a way that he carries himself that just screams justice, and all wrongs must be righted before the world can return to its previous place.
His haunting past is ever following him, gripping him often enough that he has trouble sleeping and is generally unnerved the entire film. There are few smiles from Bana in this one, but Gretchen has a habit of turning those scowls upside down—but is she hiding something? This is one of those mysteries where there are no specific suspects. In fact, everyone could be a suspect. Even the town has accepted that Aaron’s mate shot his family and then himself—sparing the baby. The detective will make it the last thing he does to clear Luke’s name. Something’s fishy about the whole thing and without hesitation, Aaron is going to get to the bottom of it, even if it destroys the tranquility of the small Australian town.
Bana effortlessly goes from concerned neighbor and former resident to hardened detective who could not be more sure of himself that this was not a murder-suicide. That was a murder and there has been a cover-up. The question is how high it goes.
Robert Connolly directed the film, and it pulsates with suspense and thrills around every corner Also, Connolly is a master storyteller and only feeds his audiences little morsels of the plot as it progresses, further fueling the impending doom feeling that this quiet hamlet is going to face and will likely result in an emotional and civic explosion.
The cinematography is profound. It is almost as if this desert landscape is a character all its own. Aaron surveys the town the moment he gets there through the second he leaves. It is a wasteland at the moment, but there is a population that is trying to make it work. As DP Stefan Duscio has captured with his lens, the environment feeds the desperation of Aaron as he tries valiantly to clear his childhood friend’s name.
The Dry is also an examination of lies and the costs that they bring, years after they were made. There are some lies we have told decades ago that still haunt us and that comes through with The Dry in ways that are explosive. Bana is one haunted individual. He never understood the accusations that were thrown at him as a teen and it’s a firm chip that has been sitting on his shoulder for years.
One can tell that The Dry was based on a book. It has that richness to it that most authors have, and screenplay adapters (here Harry Cripps and Robert Connolly) keenly know what it is the author is trying to say and impeccably brings Jane Harper’s literary haunter into a cinematic who-done-it that will leave you breathless.
Grade: A-