I don't know whether to recommend this film or not. No doubt there is authenticity to this sort of story but it does leave you, the viewer at sea. I walked out not knowing how to process it, other than feeling the horror. What I do know is that the East Alligator River setting is impressive and the aboriginal actors are powerful. On the white side, apart from the obvious stars, the film suffers from a lack of real acting ability in the bit-part actors, something Australian films tend to suffer from. Even the big names can't do a lot with their parts in terms of convincing characterization. They tend to fall back on caricature. Simon Baker is intended to be enigmatic, I think, but it doesn't really come off (which is the fault of the screenplay). It does create a level of tension in terms of anticipating who is going to shoot whom (answer : everybody shoots everybody). At the end of the film you are left with a pretty empty stage, a bit like a Shakespeare tragedy. It leaves you with an empty heart too. Maybe the thing to consider if wondering whether to see the film is to decide if a) you want to support Australian films, or b) you want to be entertained. Thumbs down if the latter.
Review of High Ground
