Mark Reviews Movies: BLUEBACK

Blueback, Quiver Distribution

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 1, 2023

For a movie about the development of an activist, Blueback is missing any sense or feeling of passion for its subject matter. We meet a researcher of marine life, discover that she was raised to care about the environment, and leave her pretty much as she arrived. There's a sizeable void in the storytelling of writer/director Robert Connolly's movie, and it ultimately feels as if we're being taught a lesson by a teacher with only a minimum degree investment in the teaching.

Our protagonist, who probably spends more time staring out toward things than anything else, is Abby (a wasted Mia Wasikowska), who's called away from an expedition to study coral on account of her mother. The mother (played by Liz Alexander in the present-day storyline) has had a stroke, and Abby drops everything to return to her childhood home by a bay in Australia and care for her mom.

Not much of anything happens in these scenes, because it's mostly a framing device to give us a series of flashbacks to a younger Abby (played by Ariel Donoghue as a kid and Ilsa Fogg as a teen) and a younger, healthier Dora (Radha Mitchell), the mother. In the past, the bay and the surrounding land is under threat by a corporate fishing enterprise, and just as the modern-day Abby stands around looking at the water, the younger Abby stands by and watches as Dora leads by example.

Dora is a fierce fighter for conserving the bay, and Mitchell brings a level of energy and sincerity that's otherwise missing from this narrative. We watch as Dora keeps tabs on local fishers like Macka (Eric Bana), investigates the big company's illegal ways, protests the development of land near the bay, and fights the good fight because she wants this place to last for great-grandchildren she may never meet.

Connolly, adapting the book by Tim Winton, gives us a lot of beautiful scenery and underwater cinematography, but it's not nearly enough to compensate for the fact that our central character is a redundant witness to what we can see without the help. The title, by the way, refers to a large blue grouper that Abby finds in a deep part of the bay—a fish that she wants to protect from all of the change that's coming. The fish itself is a convincing piece of computer-generated trickery, but the bond is such an afterthought that it's barely a gimmick. The fish is a non-entity for a long stretch—until it comes under threat, of course.

Obviously, the intentions of the filmmakers are good, as well as bluntly stated so we don't miss them. Blueback simply doesn't tell enough of a story for us to really care about a lesson as predictable and self-evident as the one being presented here.

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