The great thing about this "thriller" was, in the opinion of this UK resident, the convincing performance by the beautiful Nicole Chamoun. She seems, unusually, to come from some inner place which informs her performance and gives it a truth which acting generally lacks. Some top-quality director needs to latch on to her very soon.
I am totally uninterested in gender and diversity agendas. I am only interested in whether I am watching a gripping and, above all, convincing drama. This was not one such. Other reviewers have pointed out various inconsistencies in the plot. For myself, I found that, in short, it did not make sense.
I could never work out if the yacht at the time the fishing boat was observed was still heading away from Australia, probably towards Indonesia, or was already going back to Australia. We seem to be told at one time that they were towing the refugees' craft back towards Indonesia, which clearly the latter would not have wanted. There was some talk about the yacht changing direction (in the night?), But I never understood when or why. We were told earlier on that the vote whether or not to help the refugees was something like 5 to 1 (I won't say which way). Yet later it is revealed in a flashback that it was very different. We are told at one point that a member of the refugees I will not disclose who) cut the rope, and yet the denouement tells us something very different.
The various, and many, interchanges between the two families go up and down, in terms of friendship and hostility, in an inconsistent and unconvincing fashion, heavily violent one moment and all tender and forgiving the next. There is a lot of bad behaviour by the Australian husband, only topped, to the point of being ludicrous, by the baleful hysteria of his sister, who, when she learns of an old boyfriend's infidelity (whom she hadn't seen for years) goes quite mad.
So, in all, fairly daft and only worth having watched (for four hours!) for that lady's performance (without which I would not have bothered to write this review).
Review of Safe Harbour
