Kelly Macdonald and Garrett Hedlund play sun-drenched lovers in the taciturn Australian drama 'Dirt Music.'
is Georgie, the younger girlfriend of well-known local fisherman Jim on the coast of Western Australia. She has a penchant for predawn ocean swims, morning wine and afternoon naps. Mostly ignored and judged by Jim, she casts her eye toward a poacher, Lu , she spots in the bay in the early mornings. Both Macdonald and Hedlund are bronzed, sinewy and at the peak of sun-drenched beauty. When they fall into bed after some doublespeak about “buying a beer,” it’s tremendously exciting.
But then the film stalls out in a rotation of meaningful looks and tearful whispers and gazing at ocean vistas. Lu has a recently tragic past, and the memories of his loss haunt him, audibly, and visibly, nearly constantly, in visions of his brother, sister-in-law and niece singing bluegrass music in their family band. In their small town, Lu and Jim are bound by Georgie, but also by slowly revealed layers of tragedy.
Booker Prize-shortlisted 2002 novel of the same name. Then there are the two vastly underrated and enormously talented stars, Macdonald and American actor Hedlund. There’s the stunning setting, on the coast of Western Australia, near Perth, captured gorgeously by cinematographer Sam Chiplin . At first, there’s a certain charm to the rather taciturn script, in which the characters talk around rather than to one another. Georgie and Jim are never direct, so when she meets Lu and he’s rather forthright, it’s a refreshing change of pace, even though Georgie still struggles to be upfront. In fact, much of the issue with the film is that Georgie is not an easy character to get inside. She’s self-destructive with sex and booze; her main coping mechanism is plunging into bodies of water.
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