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DIRT MUSIC
Director: Gregor Jordan Cast: Kelly Macdonald, Garrett Hedlund, David Wenham, Aaron Pedersen, Dan Wyllie, Ava Caryofyllis, Jessica Niven, George Mason MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:44 Release Date: 7/17/20 (digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 16, 2020 Jack Thorne's screenplay for Dirt Music tries to do the story of a romance in reverse. We meet the two lovers, Georgie (Kelly Macdonald) and Lu (Garrett Hedlund), as a few chance meetings abruptly explode into passion. Then, we learn more about these characters, while circumstances of the present and trauma from the past keep them apart. The inherent problem is that we don't have any sense of these two characters as a couple, beyond their shared need to escape from their respective lives. If this were just some kind of empty affair, it might make sense, but Thorne and director Gregor Jordan, adapting Tim Winton's novel, really want us to see this bond as something much deeper than the filmmakers bother to make it. Georgie is trapped in a relationship with her comically terrible boyfriend Jim (David Wenham), a powerful fishing magnate in an Australian town. Lu is a fish poacher with a tragic history (The specifics are hidden for a long time, but Lu has constant visions of the deceased to ensure we know how tortured he is). The two meet twice while Georgie swims and Lu returns to shore, and then, he gives her a ride out of town when her car breaks down. They end up having quick but satisfying sex in a hotel room before either knows the other's name. That's when they kind of get to know each other, although the conversations usually focus on how awful Jim is and how Lu doesn't want to talk about his tragic past. It's pretty uninformative and dull in regards to these people and their relationship. Despite how much torment and charm Macdonald and Hedlund infuse into these performances, their characters have one note, played over and over again while we wonder if and when one of them will do something different. The third act of Dirt Music keeps them separate, as Lu heads to the wilderness to confront his demons and Georgie finally decides upon a change to her life (Jim makes an even more amusing about-face to accommodate the plot). Suddenly, the story isn't about this couple. It's not even about Georgie, whose problems really seem trivial after the shift. Lu and his past take over almost completely, and while it finally lends some sense of, well, character to one of these characters, it's far too little far too late. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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