Force of Narure

Directed by: Robert Connolly
Screenplay by: Robert Connolly
Based on: Force of Nature; by Jane Harper
Produced By: Jodi Matterson, Steve Hutensky, Bruna Papandrea, Robert Connolly, Eric Bana
Starring: Eric Bana, Anna Torv, Deborra-Lee Furness, Robin McLeavy, Sisi Stringer, Lucy Ansell, Jacqueline McKenzie, Tony Briggs, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Richard Roxburgh
Music by: Peter Raeburn
Production Companies: Screen Australia, Film Victoria, Made Up Stories, Arenamedia, Pick Up Truck Pictures
Release date: 8 February 2024

Plot & Review :
Force of Nature, The Dry 2 unravels the mystery of what happened to Alice, a financial executive who went missing in the mountain wilderness during a corporate team-building retreat. Alice (Anna Torv) has been slipping information about her employer's money laundering to police, but is also a bully both in her work and personal life and has crimes of her own that she is trying to conceal. Despite this potentially rich backstory, Alice remains an unsatisfyingly obscure character. Similarly, the entire suite of players are roughly sketched, not much more than caricatures and plot necessities.

The federal police detective Falk, played by Eric Bana, is frequently haunted by memories of his own childhood tragedy which played out in the very same forest. These moments are jarring, depicted with grainy, dreamy visuals and mawkish music. Falk is grappling with some of the moral conundrums inherent in his professional life. Unfortunately, the script writing really falls flat here, and rather than Falk being a man of integrity and compassion, the character comes across as petulant and immature.

Virtually all the action in the film is caused by a series of predictable and mundane mistakes. While this could have been written to convey a sense of poignant inevitability, it feels like laziness. What sort of outdoor adventure company blithely waves off inexperienced hikers into the wilderness without an EPIRB, with only one dodgy paper map, expecting them to cover 10km a day through rough mountainous terrain? When standing at the top of the ridge, the lost hikers peer over countless empty valleys and ragged ranges and proclaim heading north they will eventually hit the highway and be saved. When? Not this year.

As expected, the wilderness itself is a character in the story. The mountains are meant to be menacing and mysterious, with its leitmotif ripped from the German TV series "Dark" (which is a masterclass in menacing and mysterious), yet it is human stubbornness and stupidity that is the real danger here. Near the end of the film, Falk opines that unlike human justice, "Nature holds all of us to account." Sure, but that is not what has happened here. Just some colleagues behaving badly towards one another, poor teamwork and an uncomfortably wet and slippery mountain.

HOME SCRIPTURE BOOK REVIEWS POETRY RECIPES GARDENS FILM REVIEWS	Force of Nature Directed by: Robert Connolly Screenplay by: Robert Connolly Based on: Force of Nature; by Jane Harper Produced By: Jodi Matterson, Steve Hutensky, Bruna Papandrea, Robert Connolly, Eric Bana Starring: Eric Bana, Anna Torv, Deborra-Lee Furness, Robin McLeavy, Sisi Stringer, Lucy Ansell, Jacqueline McKenzie, Tony Briggs, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Richard Roxburgh Music by: Peter Raeburn Production Companies: Screen Australia, Film Victoria, Made Up Stories, Arenamedia, Pick Up Truck Pictures Release date: 8 February 2024 Plot & Review : Force of Nature, The Dry 2 unravels the mystery of what happened to Alice, a financial executive who went missing in the mountain wilderness during a corporate team-building retreat. Alice (Anna Torv) has been slipping information about her employer's money laundering to police, but is also a bully both in her work and personal life and has crimes of her own that she is trying to conceal. Despite this potentially rich backstory, Alice remains an unsatisfyingly obscure character. Similarly, the entire suite of players are roughly sketched, not much more than caricatures and plot necessities. The federal police detective Falk, played by Eric Bana, is frequently haunted by memories of his own childhood tragedy which played out in the very same forest. These moments are jarring, depicted with grainy, dreamy visuals and mawkish music. Falk is grappling with some of the moral conundrums inherent in his professional life. Unfortunately, the script writing really falls flat here, and rather than Falk being a man of integrity and compassion, the character comes across as petulant and immature. Virtually all the action in the film is caused by a series of predictable and mundane mistakes. While this could have been written to convey a sense of poignant inevitability, it feels like laziness. What sort of outdoor adventure company blithely waves off inexperienced hikers into the wilderness without an EPIRB, with only one dodgy paper map, expecting them to cover 10km a day through rough mountainous terrain? When standing at the top of the ridge, the lost hikers peer over countless empty valleys and ragged ranges and proclaim heading north they will eventually hit the highway and be saved. When? Not this year. As expected, the wilderness itself is a character in the story. The mountains are meant to be menacing and mysterious, with its leitmotif ripped from the German TV series "Dark" (which is a masterclass in menacing and mysterious), yet it is human stubbornness and stupidity that is the real danger here. Near the end of the film, Falk opines that unlike human justice, "Nature holds all of us to account." Sure, but that is not what has happened here. Just some colleagues behaving badly towards one another, poor teamwork and an uncomfortably wet and slippery mountain. Kirsten