MOVIE FAILS TO DO STORY JUSTICE

The West Australian coast gives a transcendent performance in the long-awaited film adaptation of Tim Winton’s raw and tender love story, but the actors can’t match its shimmering ambivalence.

David Wenham, as weather-beaten, secondgeneration, hard-as-nails crayfisherman Jim Buckridge, comes closest. While imported actors Kelly MacDonald (Scotland) and Garrett Hedlund (US) do a creditable job with the Australian accent, their on-screen relationship lacks the allconsuming intensity necessary to sell it.

Director Gregor Jordan’s overuse of Vaselinetinged flashbacks/visitations – Hedlund’s damaged loner, Lu Fox, is haunted by the death of his young niece (Ava Caryofyllis) – contributes to the problem.

The inaudibility of a key emotional sequence, in which Hedlund mumbles his dialogue, hardly helps.

Dirt Music tells the story of Georgie Jutland (MacDonald) – lawyer’s daughter, ex-nurse and one-time solo sailor – who has run aground in the fictional town of White Point where she holds the somewhat ambiguous position of Buckridge’s livein-girlfriend-cum-housekeeper.

The locals barely give this city blow-in the time of day. Lonely, bored, discontent, Georgie’s interest is piqued when she stumbles upon evidence of a crayfish poacher during a solitary excursion to the beach in the small hours of the morning.

Georgie’s predilection for nocturnal skinny dips adds frisson to her first, “chance” encounter with Fox. Their paths cross again soon afterwards when Georgie’s car breaks down on an isolated stretch of road.

While the pair’s initial tryst in a Perth hotel room feels more opportunistic than inevitable, Georgie is hooked from the get-go. Fox’s reaction is a little more difficult to gauge.

White Point is a hard town in which to keep a secret, as Aaron Pedersen’s rough-and-ready mechanic, Beaver, points out when Georgie asks to borrow one of his vehicles.

And Buckridge’s grudge with Fox has just become personal as well as professional.

Revenge takes the form of a dead dog and a crippled tinnie – Fox barely makes it back to shore alive. So begins a spiritual odyssey/suicide mission that plays out against the stunning, remote backdrop of the Dampier Peninsula.

The dramatic impact of Dirt Music’s third act plays out in inverse relationship to the scenery.

And the denouement is absurd no matter which way you read it.

Winton’s 2001 book, which won the Miles Franklin Award, has long been considered unfilmable. While it’s beautiful to look at, Dirt Music isn’t emotionally gritty enough to do its source material justice.

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