The Nightingale

Starring: Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr, Michael Sheasby, Claire Jones, Damon Herriman, Harry Greenwood, Eloise Winestock,Charlie Jampijinpa Brown
Directed by: Jennifer Kent
Rating: R
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A young woman (Aisling Franciosi) seeks vengeance through the Australian wilderness against those who murdered her family.

Review:

Tim: I was a big fan of Jennifer Kent's feature film directorial debut, The Babadook. Given that her sophomore effort received critical acclaim, I was quite excited to see this movie. Imagine my surprise when I discovered a nasty, brutal movie that completely misses the mark on what it's trying to achieve. This was completely unenjoyable. Kent's desire to showcase the worst of humanity feels unnecessarily graphic in a movie that hammers you over the head again and again with its message. I strongly disliked this movie.

First off, there's absolutely no reason for this movie to be 2 hours and 16 minutes long. It's easily 25-30 minutes too long. If you're going to tell a bleak and depressing story, at least keep it focused and to the point. It was uncalled for to have this bloated of a film. The story is never as intriguing as she thinks it is. Despite what the critics say, this is a movie that got away from its director. It was a total slog for me to sit through this movie.

I get that the story here represents the darker side of the Australian continent. It's no surprise that women and people of color suffered greatly at the hands of evil white men. This is something that should be explored and we should be reminded of. A great many movies in recent years have done this with slavery in America. 12 Years a Slave is one that accomplished the brutality and evil of slavery while still telling a compelling story. We haven't seen the atrocities committed in Australia nearly as much, so this movie's focus is a worthwhile one. The problem is that Kent tells a joyless movie here. Within the first few minutes of the film, we witness 2-3 rapes (I'm not sure if the second one counts as one or two) and the SPOILER ALERT graphic murder of a baby. This is brutal, but I understand the necessity of it. Kent seems to revel in it, though- showing perhaps too much. At the time, I was okay with graphic brutality because I assumed it was critical to establishing the tone of the movie and set our protagonist up as an avenging angel. I'm all for showing despicable things if the narrative demands it. Unfortunately, the bizarre movie that unfolds never picks up on the promise of the beginning of the film. Kent feels like she gets lost in the Australian wilderness and loses sight of what she wants to achieve.

Much of the movie feels like a messed up, nightmarish buddy road trip between Clare and Billy. Early on, she treats him terribly and he takes it... why, I'm not entirely sure. Kent never fully sells the scenes where they first partner up. Their early relationship isn't convincing at all. Throughout the film, Clare goes through a transformation and their relationship becomes the defining aspect of the film. You have two characters who represent demographics of people who have suffered unimaginable violence and they band together for survival. As the film progresses, their relationship gets better and easier to buy. However, the early scenes didn't make a lot of sense to me.

I have a ton of complaints about this movie, but the performances of Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr are not among them. Franciosi gives a powerful, emotional performance. Her director doesn't help her out, but her performance is incredibly strong. Her rawness came through in a thought-provoking role. Ganambarr was equally as excellent. He gives such a vulnerable performance, you quickly grow to care about his character (which incidentally, makes you like Clare less because she treats him so badly to begin with). Ganambarr was tremendous in a believable, strong performance. You want to protect his character, you sincerely hope he makes it through unscathed. I wish I could say I loved Sam Claflin's performance. I like him as an actor, but his character just seemed so one-dimensional. He's a despicable human being, but it seemed like his character would always do the worst possible thing, regardless of how illogical it might have been. It felt like Kent poured the sins of millions of terrible men into this one character. As a representative of evil white men, sure, he works. As a flesh and blood man, though, it felt like a caricature. I never believed his performance. I just shook my head at numerous decisions he made. It seemed like they served no logical purpose, other than to make us hate the character. That's no way to present someone. The other supporting actors were fine. Most people in this movie are terrible, and they were fairly good at playing those unlikable people.

The cinematography isn't bad. I acknowledge the uniqueness of the story. Kent tells a horrifically violent story with a bit of an arthouse feel to it. That doesn't happen very often. She is a director with talent, there's no doubt about that. Unfortunately, she didn't put her talents to good use with The Nightingale. This movie wasn't good in any sense. It's disturbing and horrific, and yet there's no payoff at the end. It offers an unsatisfying conclusion that took far too long to get to. Kent's ideas were right, but the movie she made simply does not work. I doubt many critics who praised this movie actually loved it. It feels like the kind of movie you're "supposed" to get behind. I couldn't do that.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Babadook, The Witch