Mystery Road

source: Mystery Road

I enjoyed this film as much as most of the other COMMENTERS herein. And like many of my fellow critics, I take issue with some of MYSTERY ROAD's untied plot issues. Maybe greater issue as I was disappointed at the movie's end. ADVISORY: Read no further if you're yet to watch as MYSTERY ROAD is indeed intriguing. This film is moody and interesting enough that it overcomes it's faults. But, and I'll be brutally specific: The attempt at depicting racial strife, injustice, etc., is ham-handed enough to approach gratuitousness. The "wild dog" subplot is by far the best storyline yet fades away. I''m guessing the druggies raised the mutts to protect their trade and killed the girls for canine feed. Finally -and almost irritating- is Johnno helping our hero by picking off bad guys and, if so, why? MYSTERY ROAD deserves far more than it's OK Corral ending. Whew, I'll sure take a lot of heat for this review!

Going by the reviews i thought this one would be a top notch thriller. To my surprise the movie is slow paced and makes you fall asleep .I literally slept twice in the first 50 minutes.The acting in the movie is what keep you going and asking for more. The direction could have been much better but the actors have done justice to whatever screen space they could get . The director confuses a very good plot with some unnecessary twists and turns which don't make sense at all. Over all the movie offers some amazing shots of Australia ,i wish i could say the same thing about the entire movie.Its definitely not in the A- league but can be a time killer as it was for me on a laid back Sunday!

Mystery Road can best be described as an Aboriginal noir western. Aaron Pedersen is Detective Jay Swan. A determined indigenous cop who never seems to give up despite the obstacles in his way which includes threats and racism. The detective wears a white cowboy hat but seems to use very little of his grey cells in the head as he investigates the murder of a young Aboriginal prostitute in the outback. This is a very slow burn thriller with some unresolved side plots and conspiracies. A lot of the story is confusing, even though I have seen the film twice. I really found this film to be tedious despite some nice photography such as the sunsets. Only the shoot out at the end perked things up.

Mystery Road (2013) is a film about a small town cop whose investigation into the death of a young prostitute leads him into a dark underworld of meth producers and pimps. While director Ivan Sen tries to effect a dark and somber mood, it's kind of hard to take the whole thing seriously when some of its locales have names like "Slaughter Hill" and "Massacre Creek". Even the naming of the titular road seems to serve no purpose other than to remind us of the genre of film we're watching. Which is to say nothing of the film's weird affinity for aerial tracking shots of "Detective Jay Swan" driving from one dilapidated country shack to another. Mystery Road scores some points for its visual association of a rustic countryside setting with bleakness and decay (see also, True Detective and Breaking Bad), but everything from Aaron Pederson's flat performance to the overlong running time make this a B-list thriller at best. If the film has a saving grace, it's the deftly choreographed shootout scene at the end.

The negative reviews baffled me and the positive ones can't do Mystery Road enough justice. From the opening until the dramatic end, the movie is a captivating tour de force. Coming from the U.S. I'm completely ignorant of the racial biases apparently at play in the Australian Outback, and this film subtly puts them on display without having them become overbearing or preachy. The acting is tops and Aaron Pederson does his subject well, playing him with confidence and understatement. Hugo Weaving's turn as Johnno is also a well-crafted part, not to mention all of the minor roles, all of which came across as completely believable. It's easy to say the Australian landscape had just as large a role as any of the cast, and it read its lines perfectly. Although there were a few parts where I found it difficult to understand what was said as a result of the local accent, there was no missing the message that was delivered. Again, from beginning to end the movie hit all the right notes, and even its climatic ending delivered a superbly satisfying denouement to the whole. I've come to appreciate films not produced in the U.S. because they all too often are so formulaic with shallowly cast characters. Mystery Road represents among the best of what I look for in a movie produced anywhere and is tops among such "foreign" films. It is definitely one to catch.

This film was a pleasant surprise for me among the mass of today's Hollywood productions. The movie is a bit different in its rhythm and mood from as we are expected from its genre. It tries to combine the western and the thriller style, and I think it has succeeded. The movie narrates a story of a lonely detective who tries to hunt down the murderer of a young girl in the remote and sparsely inhabited territory of Australia. But the movie is intended to be real, and makes a great effort in order to achieve that. It tries to show us the everyday life of a lonesome ranger in a realistic way. Thus, it could give us a totally different picture than the Hollywood action-stuffed blockbusters can provide. We can hardly see a single gun in use throughout the whole movie, but somehow it manages to attract the attention of the audience. The newer and newer details of the crime are revealed in a nicely right pace. Sometimes, during the interrogation of a person I've already known what the detective's following question would be. But not the teeming clichés are responsible for that (because there were any), but the adequate atmosphere what the movie could have created, because it's able to involve the audience and encourage them to investigate along with the protagonist. At the beginning I felt the fact a bit weird, that almost every single member of the town were totally unfriendly with the detective, even a few years old tiny kid, who was brave enough to announce without batting an eyelid that he'd take the detective's life. But later I realized, that I wouldn't be really happy too, if a ranger wanted to ask me a few question about a murder. However, not only these people were raw to the protagonist, but the other policeman were pretty arrogant either. We can feel the tension in almost every moment of an interrogation, because the conversations are usually interrupted with awkward silence, because the detective could hardly pull out the valuable information out of the people. That's why the dialgoues are occasionally a bit silly, but there are some moments when they're quite funky and gripping. Nevertheless, the actors did a fine job, as far as some of them had only little opportunity to prevail on the silver screen. I admit, that it wasn't Hugo Weaving's most outstanding performance, as we could see him acting far better in the Matrix or in The Lord of the Rings. But I couldn't blame him for that, because his character was really obnoxious in this movie. I could have accused him at his first appearance on the screen, like almost any other people in the movie, except the protagonist. We can hardly hear any music or soundtrack throughout the movie (only one or two), but it simply draws benefits from that, because the movie could create a much more depressing atmosphere int hat way. The film could perfectly visualize in front of our eyes, that the detectives don't have as fast-paced life as we could experience that in the high- budget Hollywood movie, but they are much slower, tedious, tiresome and difficult. The film owns a nearly 2 hours long runtime, thanks to the fact in part, that it has taken up the conventional towed style of the western genre. There are some moment, when we could see the characters looking at each for a quite long time period without moving or saying a word. But it had to be like this! So no worries! If You'd like to experience a life-like investigation in a realistically implemented environment in the company of a logically built up storyline, than I can bravely recommend You this movie! Buti f You wanna see some action scenes speeding by right after other, and You don't wanna get slowed down, then this movie will not be your cup of tea. Thanks for spending your precious free time with reading my review! Hope you liked it!

The film was intriguing, the cast was very good however the plot had so many misleading elements that were never fully developed - seemed like the screenwriter could not resolve his direction. Overall a very good film but the plot needed more resolution. The cinematography adds depth to the story, especially the overhead shots. Gives viewer more insight into the differences between the social economic classes. Pedersen is a very good actor, his facial expressions move his character along, gives him emotional range that makes us believe his devotion to the job. The plot is confusing, it was as if maybe dialogue was cut, too many details needed explanation.

I don't think this is the greatest film ever made, or even Ivan Sven's best, but it's definitely worth a look. You'll have to leave aside any US parochialism (the US experience of place, politics, and film convention all too often stand in as "universal" or "neutral") and accept that this film may be addressing particularly Australian experiences and expressions of place, race, and politics, even as Sven tries to frame these concerns within recognisable genre conventions. His film probably doesn't fully succeed; and like most genre films, there's some predictability and inevitability about the plot line and outcomes. However, there's an excellent central performance and - if you allow yourself to settle into the rhythm the film demands, instead of looking for satisfaction of your own particular expectations/needs - the mood of the piece is affecting. In parts, it reminds me of Wake in Fright. That it presents an Aboriginal man as the central figure - and a policeman at that - "waking in fright" as an outsider in his own town/country is worth thinking about. Is it an "authentic" representation of "the outback"? What would that be? What's "the" "outback"? How would we know it was "authentic", and who has the right to say? Is John Ford's "The Searchers" an "authentic" representation of "the West"? I'm not suggesting this is on the same level as The Searchers, but to write it off as some have on this site seems harsh. Worth a look; it may teach you something about race relations in Australia.

It would be easy to just say that this is Australia's answer to No Country For Old Men, but that would be selling this movie short. Yes there are similarities in the showdowns, and the fact that both are acted beautifully, and honestly without pretension, or over dramatization. You just get the raw story here, and it is really good. Race is an issue in the story, but it is not the focus, nor is it essential, It would be an outsider coming home no matter who he was, or where the story was set. I like to come into most movies completely blind, and always hope for the best result, you must like to know more, or you wouldn't be reading this. Then it's the goods you seek, then here they are. I really Enjoyed this movie, the acting is all excellent, from the youngest to the oldest everyone held their own, the story is so very deep, and layered, and ends in the only way that it could. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes a good dramatic story with a lot of the mystery left for you, and the main character to discover together, you get this dealt out exceptionally well in fact. The beauty of the Australian Outback, with a great 3 way Sniper shootout that was inevitable Ryan Kwanten playing a villain is a nice extra treat as well. Jesse of www.Jesse.ca