This much-hyped, six-part Aussie miniseries (written by Stephen M. Irwin and Kylie Needham and directed by Kate Dennis and Peter Salmon) was recently ‘must-see’ television, and yet it features the best and the worst of Oz drama (TV or otherwise): there’s some fine, sweaty playing, and some tedious hamming; strong characterisations rub shoulders with dreary plot devices and dire dialogue; and a would-be ruthless, who-can-you-trust? mood is compromised by riffs of silliness. Ben Gundelach (Martin Henderson, pretty damn good) is a house painter and family man who finds the body of a murdered kid and, in Hitchcockian style, keeps on making himself the prime suspect as he snoops about, trying to find the killer and clear his name. And Ian Cornielle (Anthony Hayes), the detective on the case, also interrogates Ben’s neighbours, uncovering a sort of Broadchurch in Brisbane and a nest of characters with plenty to hide, including the late lad’s Mum Jess Murnane (Rake’s Adrienne Pickering), his military Dad Paul (Ben Lawson) and even Ben’s womanising mate Dave Carroll (Damon Gameau), who lives on his property and keeps reminding our hero of his own unfaithfulness. And if you think that all of this couldn’t possibly turn out happily then, well, you’d be right, cobber.
(Roadshow, M, 262 Mins)
(Special Features: a selection of featurettes, character profiles and more)
