Force of Nature: The Dry 2
Force of Nature: The Dry 2
‘Rule No. 1: Do not review a film without having seen it’ is one of the cardinal rules of being a critic. One of those was ‘The Dry’ directed by Robert Connolly: a riveting tension filled mood piece drama/ thriller’. It chronicles the return of a Melbourne police officer Aaron Falk by Eric Bana who finds himself caught in the web of family mystery and folklore. Sadly, ‘Force of Nature: The Dry 2’ a spinoff, or rather a sequel based on the second book in the Harper’s Aaron Falk series, has the same direction as Connolly, but does not understand its variations nor does it embrace its own tale. The Dry 2 as the title suggests is rather misguiding, for it is not a continuation of the previous chapter. It is a completely independent work with Aaron as a common character. I did find the film rather decent and quite actor oriented film construction. It did so much more than hint at creating a depth.
The premise has a lot of potential. Five women go on a corporate retreat where they have to hike through a rainforest in order to build teamwork and be more effective in the workplace (or something like that). Only four women emerge from the rainforest. Everyone has a different story about the disastrous hike, and they are all cagey about what might have happened to their missing co-worker. From Melbourne cop Aaron Falk, who is joined by his partner Carmen, one of the cops dedicates an additional one to two pages to investigating the cop. One way or the other Aaron was intrigued by the ‘case’ both on the professional and on the personal level.
The next connotation that instills itself in the readers is the film “Picnic at Hanging Rock” directed by Peter Weir, another Australian movie, in which several picnic-goers – two girls and their teacher – are lost without a trace. Yet another literary haunting of the ever-lasting love of landscapes is a story by Margaret Atwood entitled Death by Landscape. “Death by landscape” – as these stories can aptly be termed – that’s how one can characterize some of these narratives in which the centre is the environment, potent thanks to imagery, and the use of both metaphors and symbols has been too extreme. The first landscape that was depicted in “The Dry” was hot and droughty like the weather of the tropics devoid of rain. As for the landscape in “Force of Nature”, it is thick, moist and any shade of green one can possibly imagine. Both sorts of landscapes make enormous requirements on those unfortunate enough to be captured into them. Andrew Commis’ cinematography depicts the environment of rainforest ineed, capturing its extensity and its chaos of getting lost in it.
‘Force of Nature’ is abled with five rousing female leads and the casting is commendable. Jill (Deborra-Lee Furness) who also happens to be the boss is married to the head of the firm and is a high ranking officer in the firm. Beth (Sisi Stringer) has a younger sister called Bree (Lucy Ansell) and Lauren (Robin McLeavy) is Ellen’s sibling (if I am not wrong. It wasn’t very well established). It’s a bit of a stretch having two sets of sisters employed in the same firm but never mind. Redheaded Alice (Anna Torv), hot-tempered is a source of contention for the group. Everybody hates her. In an instance when all the women committ a blunder of turning to the wrong direction and then become lost, they are all too occupied pointing fingers at each other and fighting on what course of action to take that they waste quite a significant amount of time. These parts are very suspenseful, especially due to the Kiwi hour’s resonance: What happened to Alice? Where did she disappear to?
The female attendees seen on the weekend getaway would suffice for one film, but in a case of “What else I could cater you” his producers cut ‘Force of Nature’ without regret. Aaron and his partner ( the alarmingly scanty Jacqueline McKenzie) have also performed a thorough investigation on this enterprise as suspected financial crime perpetrators and recruited Alice as an informant. No one was aware she has been playing both sides, however Aaron felt something was wrong. There is more.
Aaron’s mother, despite several warnings about the dangers of the rainforest, still can’t be a bother to his father and went missing on a similar family hike when he was a child. His focus goes distant, submerged into a recollection of some event from the past, and no one quite knows why poor Alice is lost somewhere in this time! The three perpendicular axes of this structure will also be available. We have Aaron and Carmen interviewing the four women, Aaron and Carmen eliciting the four women’s testimony and going into flashbacks of the murderous hike. We drop back to younger Aaron (Archie Thomson) with parents Jeremy Lindsey Taylor and Ash Ricardo this time concerning parents and son on nature walking, holding a hike. At the same time, “The Dry belonged to the genre of sensational literature, this fact was not highlighted” the fact, that one, as it seems, says with eyes closed, his mother was lost, well blessed this places extra fiction. These inter-temporal frameworks alienate the flow, disrupting complexity in ways that half contradict the film’s underlying goals: empathy.
“The Dry” also exhibited a comparable structure phenomenally where Aaron is haunted by the past and also being in the present. It has been a self-discovery and an impressive murder investigation at the same time. ‘Force of Nature’ derives a lot of tension out of What happened to Alice? The actors help the mystery as well. Every character has a sound reason why would want to eliminate Alice. Who did it? The anxiety might have sustained the film all through if this other stuff that has a blinding light of course was not in its way.
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- Genre: Mystery, Thriller
- Country: United States
- Director: Robert Connolly
- Cast: Eric Bana, Anna Torv, Deborra-Lee Furness, Robin McLeavy, Sisi Stringer, Lucy Ansell, Jacqueline McKenzie, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Richard Roxburgh
