FORCE OF NATURE (2024) - Mark Reviews Movies

Force of Nature, IFC Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 9, 2024

The forest holds multiple mysteries in Force of Nature, writer/director Robert Connolly's follow-up to his The Dry. Both films revolve around Aaron Falk (Eric Bana), a man with a troubling past (It's revealed to be even more so in this installment) that has driven him to become a detective with the Australian Federal Police out of Melbourne. He's a fascinating character, although much of that comes from Bana's ability to balance the man's hardened determination to do his job, his inherent compassion for others, and, as he keeps getting involved mysteries that don't have simple answers about good and evil, his growing skepticism about the efficacy of his career.

The character is the protagonist of three novels by Jane Harper, and at this rate, she'd better get to writing more books about the guy, because the conclusion of this compelling mystery also leaves us with several questions about him. Does the man have a life outside of his police work? How much more trauma is he hiding, waiting to confront it when a related case suddenly presents itself to him? Is there some final straw, when he finally has had enough of the moral ambivalence of dealing with mysteries that uncover layers and layers of the frailties and flawed nature of humanity, awaiting Falk in the future?

For the present moment, though, Connolly's self-contained sequel (Despite the marketing, there's no subtitle connecting this installment to its predecessor on screen) is a complex and satisfying detective story. The narrative jumps between four different timelines, also functions as a race-against-the-clock thriller, and uses its setting as both a practical location, because it's difficult to find a missing person in the vast expanse of a wooded national park, and a potent—not to mention intrinsically photogenic—metaphor. A lot more than one woman has been lost in and to this place, and that includes whatever innocence Falk might have had in his youth.

Practically speaking, the plot begins with four women emerging from the forest and being found by a passing vehicle. Originally, five women went into the woods, as part of a corporate retreat for a financial firm, but one of them disappeared. If any member of the rescued quartet knows where she is or what happened to her, they're staying quiet or being evasive about the truth.

The woman is Alice (Anna Torv), who turns out to be a criminal informant for Falk and his police partner Carmen (Jacqueline McKenzie). The detectives are investigating the company for financial malfeasance—having to do with money being laundered and used for all sorts of international crimes. The federal cops know Alice stole money from the firm, and they're using that information as leverage for her to obtain incriminating documentation about the company.

That, of course, means Alice's disappearance is pretty suspicious. After all, Jill (Deborra-Lee Fuerness), a human resources executive at the firm, selected Alice to participate in the retreat at the last minute, and CEO Daniel (Richard Roxburgh), also Jill's husband, starts talking about lawyers as soon as he figures out Falk is not an ordinary local cop helping with the search. To be fair, Falk is genuinely concerned about what happened to Alice, beyond her role in potentially cracking the case. He feels guilty about pressuring her, showing up at her daughter's school with threats of prison time if she doesn't help him.

Plus, he once camped in this forest as a kid (played by Archie Thomson) with his parents (played by Jeremy Lindsay Taylor and Ash Ricardo). The trip had a tragic result.

Connolly's screenplay intercuts between these four narrative threads: the search for Alice and the questioning of the other employees, Falk's efforts to get Alice's cooperation, an account of the five women's hike through the forest, and memories of the family vacation that keep flooding back to Falk upon his return. Each one is involving and revealing in its own way.

The interrogations play as a mental game of cat-and-mouse, especially once the flashbacks to the women's difficult hike reveal that, maybe, not all of them are being forthright about the truth. The other members of the retreat are Lauren (Robin McLeavy), whose relationship with Alice is fraught on account of an incident with their daughters, and sisters Beth (Sisi Stringer) and Bree (Lucy Ansell), who are close and protective of each other. If something happened to Alice, all four of the women could have a reason to stay silent, but then again, the story of the trek through the woods also exposes why Alice had a reputation as a workplace bully.

Meanwhile, the other two story threads, revolving around Falk's actions and memories, give us a better sense of him. He's not just some detached cop looking to close a major case, as his partner is, but a man who think he made a mistake and wants to atone for it. As for the scenes from his childhood, they help us understand how he became this way, as the family trip gets closer and closer to a serial killer who has murdered multiple women in these woods—and who may or may not still be there, by the way.

Admittedly, it's a lot—too much for everything, especially the course of Falk's flashbacks, to arrive at a firm conclusion. Even so, Connolly balances these storylines well, and on a deeper level, the absence of solid and comforting answers, just as with the film's predecessor, is a major reason why Force of Nature is so satisfying—not only as a genuine mystery, but also in seeing its effect on this protagonist. Falk is no ordinary, by-the-books detective, so his mysteries deserve to be complicated and uncertain as he is.

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