Audience reviews
The Dry (2020)
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G Connolly
just now
Posturing, empty, immature, this film pretends to be something when it's never more than an extended episode of any faceless, Australian crime series. It's not the kind of film which could handle themes as you would expect of a movie as opposed to yet another a series episode, nor could present some kind of human interest. It all felt very fake and shallow.
I think it's supposed to have atmosphere. Actually that amounts to just a lot of aerial drone scenes of not much, and for example someone driving to eerie music, in between really plodding formulaic development of the crime plot.
I had guessed who the killer was for much of the film though hadn't worked out the whys exactly, as everything was connected to an historical murder.
The end was a major anticlimax, and would still have been whether or not you had any idea who the killer was. The reasons behind the murders had not been developed or suggested until close to the very end, so it's a case of not really giving a damn.
On the whole, the impression is that the actors thought they were something more than their written characters and skills allow. Also the film tries to seem more than the sum of its parts, but unsuccessfully. The screenplay is unimpressive. Even when there is occasional good acting, like from a potential love interest later in the film, I wondered by that stage why she was bothering. A real character suddenly? That doesn't really fit in.
Maybe the book was a whole lot better but dry is an understatement for this dull film.
It's a little scammy also by leading you along through it, not exactly with suspense but because you may suppose there's something to learn. The best way would be to give up but it seems that the film knows that and is keeping you hanging on cynically.
I found that it's really difficult to care for any of the characters at all, or the place or whodunnit in the end. I just wished I hadn't been drawn to watch the worid of that film by adverts for it.
Posturing, empty, immature, this film pretends to be something when it's never more than an extended episode of any faceless, Australian crime series. It's not the kind of film which could handle themes as you would expect of a movie as opposed to yet another a series episode, nor could present some kind of human interest. It all felt very fake and shallow.
I think it's supposed to have atmosphere. Actually that amounts to just a lot of aerial drone scenes of not much, and for example someone driving to eerie music, in between really plodding formulaic development of the crime plot.
I had guessed who the killer was for much of the film though hadn't worked out the whys exactly, as everything was connected to an historical murder.
The end was a major anticlimax, and would still have been whether or not you had any idea who the killer was. The reasons behind the murders had not been developed or suggested until close to the very end, so it's a case of not really giving a damn.
On the whole, the impression is that the actors thought they were something more than their written characters and skills allow. Also the film tries to seem more than the sum of its parts, but unsuccessfully. The screenplay is unimpressive. Even when there is occasional good acting, like from a potential love interest later in the film, I wondered by that stage why she was bothering. A real character suddenly? That doesn't really fit in.
Maybe the book was a whole lot better but dry is an understatement for this dull film.
It's a little scammy also by leading you along through it, not exactly with suspense but because you may suppose there's something to learn. The best way would be to give up but it seems that the film knows that and is keeping you hanging on cynically.
I found that it's really difficult to care for any of the characters at all, or the place or whodunnit in the end. I just wished I hadn't been drawn to watch the worid of that film by adverts for it.