When the Land is a Lead Actor
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Two movies out now, The Dry and Summerland are so intertwined with the place where they are set that the country becomes a key part of the story.
The Dry, based on the book by Jane Harper, is a story of two murders: one old and the other a recent murder/suicide of a whole family. Eric Bana’s character returns to a severely drought-affected town 20 years after he left—a result of that first death.
The bitterness towards him, his wrestling with his demons and the divisive consequences of the recent incident are played out against a backdrop of drought so tangible I could taste the dust. The horizon is red with a nearby fire front and a once flowing river is just sand.
Flashbacks to the lead up to the earlier death are played out in the same place in a good year of green grass and lush growth—which surely means that the location scouts are the unsung heroes of this film. Finding two locations so similar but so different, I am in awe.
I am also in awe of the calibre of the characterisations. This is great work from Bana but also from Genevieve O’Reilly (Glitch), Keir O’Donnell (Project Blue Book, Wedding Crashers), John Polson (he invented Tropfest) and the always wonderful Matt Nable (Arrow, Mr. Inbetween).
The characters they bring to life are not caricatures of Australian rural ‘types’, they are complex, conflicted humans. The young actors portraying Bana and O’Reilly (and one of the victims of the latest crime) are next level casting too. Looks and mannerisms tie in beautifully with the adult version of them.
Smaller roles are mostly played by the people of Beulah, the town where this was filmed. This gives wonderful richness and texture to what, for me, is a quality production. The land and the people make what could have been a simple whodunnit into a great night at the movies.
In contrast, Summerland is set on the Kentish coast during the Second World War. Don’t yawn—it is not a ‘worthy British drama’, it is the most heartbreakingly romantic story of lost love and new friendship I’ve seen in quite a while. And again, the landscape is central to the story.
Gemma Arterton, in her best role so far, plays a disillusioned academic writing a book on British pagan beliefs, including the existence of ‘Summerland,’ a country floating in the sky, where you go after you die. Mirages of this place (or is it Dover Castle?) sometimes appear along the coast, so she has her camera ready at all times. She is also hiding out (having had her heartbroken by Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s incandescent flapper, Vera) so she does not want the child refugee from London thrust upon her.
Lucas Bond, as that child (Frank) is a revelation, I had a sense of watching a real boy, not an actor. The scenes between the two key characters are, so well balanced and touching that there are no words to adequately describe them. As woman and child break down each other’s barriers and become real friends, the conflict of war and the windswept beauty are always close by, giving this an urgent yet timeless quality that is a wonderful tightrope walk by writer/director Jessica Swale.
Tom Courtenay as the local headmaster is a delight and Frank’s thorny little friend Edie (Dixie Egerickx) feels like she is drawn from real life (perhaps the director’s own?). There was not a dry eye at the screening I went to—so I think this would resonate with all ages.
