jmvscotland I'm not quite sure even now how I feel about this movie. I wanted to like it because, as an Australian, I believe that Australia has a very high success rate in making movies that are variously worthy, interesting or, oftentimes, just plain funny.The name of this movie was I admit a particular attraction for me personally because I know Jindabyne the town so very well. But, I admit that I didn't really know too much about the movie when I recently bought the DVD.Certainly, for me it was interesting to see so many familiar places in and around Jindabyne. But, like many others who have reviewed here, I found the movie annoying at times and ultimately a bit dreary. I cared very little at all about any of the characters, least of all about the kid with quite possibly the most stupid name in all of film history. I speak here of Caylin-Calandria.The thing that really offended me the most though, as I'm sure it offended a great majority of white Australians who might have seen it, was the lecturing tone that had at its heart the centuries old grievances of the Aboriginal part of Australian society against the white Australian population. "They done us wrong", "someone has to pay", "don't celebrate Australia Day because it offends us", "don't pretend to be sympathetic (Claire) when you're a whitey and you just don't understand anything". I detest being lectured about morals in any movie and I make no exception for this one.I would have thought that any modern day civilized people might have been even a little bit open to Claire's overture to the Aboriginal people who lost one of their community. We white Australians are not racists simply because we enjoy all that Australia has to offer us in return for hard work and commitment to a modern society. Most white Australians would wish that everything were equal for whites and for Aboriginals. The fact is that the very great majority of white Australians are not racists these days. Just try to get over past hurts and become engaged members of society. That's the point that really needed to be made in this movie.Having said that, I quite agree with what many others have said here that it was absolutely inexplicable why a group of four guys finds a woman's semi-naked body (any woman's semi-naked body regardless of ethnic background) in a river and doesn't do what so blindingly obviously need to be done; reporting it quickly to Police rather than tying up the body and having a jolly old time fishing in the very same waters.I must end here by saying that I was offended by the final scene of the movie with so little lack of tolerance for the white lady who came to pay respects at the Aboriginal ceremony. I was even more offended by the interminable Whitney Houston type wailing of a song the deceased woman allegedly wrote before she died.This is not a movie I plan to watch again any time soon.

justincward Apparently 'Jindabyne' is the story of how the monumentally stupid behavior of four Australian good buddies (not reporting the discovery of a body until they've finished fishing, and then letting on that they did so) brings the racial conflicts of an Australian town and emotional conflicts of its families to the surface.The problem with the film is that not one of the characters is written as anything but a stereotype. Not a single one of them has a need that the audience can understand - you're left to assume their motivation from the cliché they are drawn from. It's sheer bad writing - each main character has to have some sort of major drama going on, because their characters are so thin. That's melodrama, and the cast chew the Australian scenery like they haven't eaten in a week, and the full-on ethnic wailing on the soundtrack gets old very quickly.The consequence of having so many threads of melodrama is that not one of them is resolved. The movie tries to cover up its lack of proper characterization by resorting to an unnecessary and unresolved serial killer plot, and a paper-thin small-town racism plot.Nobody on the crew thought to mention that if you find a dead body in a creek, you might not feel like eating the fish you pull out of there. Bad writing and sloppy film-making.

paul2001sw-1 One hopes one will not do anything truly evil in one's life; but supposing you (or someone you love) did something not exactly evil, but inexcusable - and was found out. This is the premise of Jinbadyne, and we see how the fall out of such a happening in an Australian community weakens already frail relationships and exposing tensions which are founded on a racism that, however unpleasant, is based (in both directions) on an irreconcilable sense of identity. You realise this film is good when its protagonists deliver stunning lines that seem totally natural, because you believe in their characters; also in the subtle way it works as a coolly unnerving thriller: this element of the movie is mostly played down against the personal drama so that when it is occasionally allowed to surface, it really shocks. That the villain of the piece is a sort of small town hero adds to the poignancy. If I was to call this film thoughtful, this might be a disservice: not because it isn't, but because reality bites harder than fantasy, and this is a gripping story as well as a human one.

sim_roberts This film promises so much - the premise raises all sorts of interesting issues - I was captivated...initially. Somehow the film becomes a sort of Billy Jack for the noughties.The director is clever enough to put his messages in the mouths of likable country types but they are unmistakably the words of odious, self-obsessed, antidepressant addicted bores. These characters don't exist in Jindabyne or any country town. It's didactic in a way that makes you feel as if you're being preached at for 90 minutes but that's not the worst of it. Nothing rings true. The characters are just ciphers.The final fifteen minutes would have been unforgivable if they appeared in a student film.