Tockinit not horrible nor great

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

jmvscotland I'm not quite sure even now how I feel about this movie. I wanted to like it because, as an Australian, I believe that Australia has a very high success rate in making movies that are variously worthy, interesting or, oftentimes, just plain funny.The name of this movie was I admit a particular attraction for me personally because I know Jindabyne the town so very well. But, I admit that I didn't really know too much about the movie when I recently bought the DVD.Certainly, for me it was interesting to see so many familiar places in and around Jindabyne. But, like many others who have reviewed here, I found the movie annoying at times and ultimately a bit dreary. I cared very little at all about any of the characters, least of all about the kid with quite possibly the most stupid name in all of film history. I speak here of Caylin-Calandria.The thing that really offended me the most though, as I'm sure it offended a great majority of white Australians who might have seen it, was the lecturing tone that had at its heart the centuries old grievances of the Aboriginal part of Australian society against the white Australian population. "They done us wrong", "someone has to pay", "don't celebrate Australia Day because it offends us", "don't pretend to be sympathetic (Claire) when you're a whitey and you just don't understand anything". I detest being lectured about morals in any movie and I make no exception for this one.I would have thought that any modern day civilized people might have been even a little bit open to Claire's overture to the Aboriginal people who lost one of their community. We white Australians are not racists simply because we enjoy all that Australia has to offer us in return for hard work and commitment to a modern society. Most white Australians would wish that everything were equal for whites and for Aboriginals. The fact is that the very great majority of white Australians are not racists these days. Just try to get over past hurts and become engaged members of society. That's the point that really needed to be made in this movie.Having said that, I quite agree with what many others have said here that it was absolutely inexplicable why a group of four guys finds a woman's semi-naked body (any woman's semi-naked body regardless of ethnic background) in a river and doesn't do what so blindingly obviously need to be done; reporting it quickly to Police rather than tying up the body and having a jolly old time fishing in the very same waters.I must end here by saying that I was offended by the final scene of the movie with so little lack of tolerance for the white lady who came to pay respects at the Aboriginal ceremony. I was even more offended by the interminable Whitney Houston type wailing of a song the deceased woman allegedly wrote before she died.This is not a movie I plan to watch again any time soon.

werefox08 The acting of Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney (who play a married couple) is extremely good. The actual film is O.K., but one has to ask why it did so poorly...particularly in America. The answer (I believe) is the case of the missing scene. When four men find a young ladies dead body during a fishing expedition, they just go ahead with their fishing. No communication, no debate about what would be the correct course of action--nothing.! It is true however, that some Aussie "blokes" would just carry on with their watery activity. Whatever--I am sure this--and some other typically Aussie bloke activities may have confused the global audience. Anyway this movie has a spooky atmosphere from start to finish--like there is some impending doom on the horizon. It has the power to unsettle the viewer. There are some rather ridiculous interactions between Aboriginals and whites, but generally its an effective drama / murder story.

roukee Starts with great promise about the story of a town now gone and a new town replacing it. The old town is now under water and there are references to zombies by first the father and then friend of the little Tom. The children (Caylin-Calandria) in the film display a lot of crazy behaviou r for no real good reason. One explanation for all of this is to set the scene - but this film, in cinematic terms, is clearly not a thriller and more of an emotional/psychological drama of people who are already mired by problems, having to deal with more.We see elaborate character building in the film and sometimes it is overdone, especially of characters who are not involved in the main plot. There were too many unanswered questions. Why didn't Stewart and his friends worry about their families back home with a killer loose? Why didn't one or two of them get back to the car and call the police? The film then drags on for a bit and ends with more questions. Why does the murderer chase Claire? Why does he watch the funeral? Beautiful symbolisms and the beautiful Australian landscape make for a haunting movie. Really good acting by all actors, more so by Gabriel Byrne who had me completely convinced that reporting that he'd found a dead body four days too late wasn't really their fault.The beautiful song sung by Susan's (Tatea Reilly) sister Ursula Yovich and her superb acting, bought a tear to my eye.Being a lover of stories with a certain amount of structure, Jindabyne left me unsatisfied.

paul2001sw-1 One hopes one will not do anything truly evil in one's life; but supposing you (or someone you love) did something not exactly evil, but inexcusable - and was found out. This is the premise of Jinbadyne, and we see how the fall out of such a happening in an Australian community weakens already frail relationships and exposing tensions which are founded on a racism that, however unpleasant, is based (in both directions) on an irreconcilable sense of identity. You realise this film is good when its protagonists deliver stunning lines that seem totally natural, because you believe in their characters; also in the subtle way it works as a coolly unnerving thriller: this element of the movie is mostly played down against the personal drama so that when it is occasionally allowed to surface, it really shocks. That the villain of the piece is a sort of small town hero adds to the poignancy. If I was to call this film thoughtful, this might be a disservice: not because it isn't, but because reality bites harder than fantasy, and this is a gripping story as well as a human one.