Category: Australian murder mystery, book-to-movie adaptation
Directed by: Robert Connolly
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Eric Bana returns in the sequel to one of the few Australian movies in recent memory to actually get and live up to the hype. The Dry 2: Force Of Nature is the long-awaited sequel to the modern classic The Dry, though there is a certain irony in having a movie titled The Dry set in a wet and damp forest…
This movie is based off the Jane Harper book Force Of Nature, the second in the Aaron Falk trilogy, and chances are we will probably get Exiles somewhere down the line. Not that I've read any Jane Harper books, but I will say it looks like she knows how to put a story together!
Is the movie itself any good? Will fans of the first love the second? Find out after the plot recap, bearing in mind that this movie involves a lot of flashbacks (much like the first), so I'll do my best to present a coherent linear description.
The plot:
The movie begins with four women emerging out from a damp and dark forest, flagging down a car to seek medical attention for one of the women who has been bitten by a spider.
We then go back to three days earlier where we see Detective Aaron Falk (Eric Bana) receive a panicked phone call from a woman named Alice, but because of the bad reception at her location in the mountains, the only words he can make out are "Daniel knows..". This spurs Falk into action, going to his storage unit with Detective Carmen Cooper (Jacqueline McKenzie) to collect hiking gear and a topographical map of the Giralang Ranges where Alice Russell (Anna Torv) has disappeared on a executive team-building retreat. Adding to the drama is an approaching storm that will soon make a forest search difficult if not impossible.
It is here we get our first of many flashbacks to Falk as a teenager going on a hike with his parents, Erik and Jenny (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor and Ash Ricardo) - and where are they hiking? The Giralang Ranges - a fictional location based on the numerous forest ranges in the state of Victoria such as the Dandenong Ranges or the Otways, also where filming took place. The purpose of these flashbacks is two-fold - to establish that Erik taught Aaron how to navigate forest terrain, and to relive a past trauma.
Falk and Cooper meet up with Sergeant Vince King (Kenneth Radley) who is leading a team of SES volunteers searching the forest for Alice. The issue at hand, though, is that Falk and Cooper are federal police, and federal police usually don't get involved in forest searches for missing hikers. As it turns out, Falk and Cooper are investigating a finance company called Bailey Tennants for their involvement in various financial crimes, and Alice (a high-up employee) was assisting Falk by secretly extricating documents. Complicating matters is that Falk knows Alice embezzled $100'000 of company money - thus essentially forcing her co-operation.
Falk and Cooper question everybody around to work out what happened, with co-operation from Ian Chase (Tony Briggs), a tour guide for a company called Executive Adventures that facilitated the whole exercise for Bailey Tennants. Bailey Tennants - run by husband and wife team Jill and Daniel Bailey (Deborah-Lee Furness and Richard Roxbourgh) - take two groups of employees (separated by gender) away on a multi-day forest trek where they are expected to return back three days later after collecting a number of branded flags that represent a cash prize. The five in the women's group are Alice herself, Jill Bailey, sisters Beth and Bree (Sisi Stringer and Lucy Ansell) and Lauren (Robin McLeavy), a long-time friend of Alice.
On the first night, the women's camp is unexpectedly visited by the male group that includes Daniel. During the mingling of the two groups, Daniel separates Alice from the camp to have a talk with her, leading to suspicion that Alice and Daniel are having an affair (particularly since Alice has risen quickly within the company). Adding to the distrust is that Jill discovers Alice's secret mobile phone, as well as the fact that after the talking to by Daniel, Alice seems very easily angered and annoyed and is in a hurry to get out - cash flags be damned!
The next day, it becomes apparent that Alice is headstrong to the point of disunity (though others may use less generous terms) since she constantly clashes with her teammates, Jill's authority being the only thing keeping her in line. Alice first belittles Bree for being out of her depth in reading a topographical map to lead the group, and later on when the women are resting by a river, Alice tries to snatch the map out of Beth's hands where Beth's instinctive reaction causes the map to fall into the river. The map is lost despite Laura's best efforts, a head injury being her reward. Distrust between Alice and the rest is furthered when Alice says she is taking the group towards one particular cardinal direction, but the direction of the sun setting uncovers Alice's deceit.
The group then decide to try go north to a main road and flag for assistance, and along the way, they come across a run-down hut in the middle of the forest. The hut provides shelter and looks abandoned and bare except for a bloodstained bench seat. Alice wants to keep going, but the rest of the group vote to stay. In her annoyance, Alice walks away, but trips over a partially-buried skull. Why a partially-buried skull? This reveals the past trauma, the other reason for the numerous flashbacks.
It turns out that decades prior, a serial killer kidnapped and murdered numerous women in the the very same forest range the women are in now and that Falk and his family trekked to. During one particular family hike, Jen Falk suddenly disappears and it turns out she was kidnapped, stabbed and then left for dead by someone matching the MO of the serial killer, and it is only by finding his mother and helping his dad get her to a hospital that saved her. Thus, the task of trying to find a woman in mortal danger in the Giralang Ranges turns out to be something very personal for Det. Falk, much like his return to Kiewarra in the first The Dry movie.
The second night, all of the women are in the hut and the distrust towards Alice really comes out. Alice wants to get back her bag that Jill has confiscated, leading to an all-in brawl which ends with Jill being bruised, Beth getting injured and Alice swearing to leave first thing in the morning. We also find out that everyone has reasons for wanting to Alice to disappear - Jill firstly for either Alice's alleged affair with her husband or her apparent knowledge of Alice's embezzlement. Beth, to protect her sister, Bree, who is a recovering drug addict on probation for crimes she committed in order to fuel her drug habit, and an assault charge would likely see Bree put back in jail. Lastly is Lauren who holds animosity towards Alice over an incident involving their respective daughters - while the incident itself isn't revealed, what is revealed is that Alice's daughter was able to evade suspension by way of a large donation to the school (presumably the money she had embezzled), and that Alice looks down upon both Lauren and her daughter for being perpetual victims.
The next morning, Alice sneaks out to make the phone call that Falk received at the start of the film, unbeknownst to her that Lauren is also listening to Alice's confession of embezzlement in real-time. A subsequent fight between the two causes Alice to trip over and hit her head on a rock, incapacitating her while Lauren goes back to the hut believing Alice will recover from her injuries after some time alone. Unfortunately, Alice doesn't recover.
Beth and Bree then come across Alice's body, Bree suspecting Beth was involved in Alice's death and the two thus hide the body so that Beth can't be implicated. However, in moving the body, Bree trips and sticks her arm in a funnel-web spider web, causing the bite we see her getting attention for earlier on.
After further questioning of the women and putting the pieces together, Falk eventually finds Alice's body as well as locating the hut used by the serial killer whose crimes have plagued Det. King for decades.
Back at the hotel everyone is staying at, Daniel and Falk get into a heated discussion about the nature of the allegations against Bailey and the kind of criminals that Falk investigates.
Beth hands Falk the USB stick that Alice had managed to smuggle copies of documents on, leading to a brief moment of relief.
The movie ends with Falk returning to the same mountain-top spot where his mother went missing years ago.
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It's a good story, but I just don't feel it had the same gravitas as the first movie. Maybe it came across better in print than in film.
To me, I think the biggest problem is that it's not really a unique Australian story - the first Dry was a uniquely Australian murder mystery because of both it's location and the way the townsfolk held grudges. However, here, this story could have been set in any forest in any English speaking country with any women.
In terms of the murder mystery itself, I quite liked it - it was essentially a whodunit in much the same way as the first The Dry was. This time around, a lot more corporate espionage and policework is involved.
But the contrivances killed me. My heart sank when they connected Falk's mother's disappearance to the serial killer, and the only way the story could be more contrived is if Falk's dad WAS the serial killer.
I did enjoy the acting, though - despite the reputation Australian films get, we definitely have great actors. Eric Bana was solid as Falk, and Deborah-Lee Furness really sold me on being a corporate wife. Anna Torv also did a great job with her part convincing as someone who holds her own in a corporate environment (which I don't mean that as a compliment). In fact, there were no weak spots here, or if there were, they were covered by judicious use of screen time.
I really think, though, that this movie should simply have been called "Force Of Nature", because there's no narrative connection to the first "The Dry" movie.
I also feel that this movie retcons things a touch - in the first The Dry, Falk and his family are run out of town, almost fleeing for their lives. Here, they're taking regular hikes as if everything is fine and dandy.
I want to like it, but it just didn't quite have that same punch that the first movie did. The first movie really was this awful story set in a struggling and insular town, which really aided to the overall feel to the point that the town itself became one of the cast.
However, as a showcase for Victoria, holy shit, this movie has knocked it out of the park!
STAR RATING: 3/5
