There’s nothing particularly original about the plot of Australian crime-thriller The Dry, in which a troubled big-city cop returns to the small town where he grew up to solve the murder of his childhood friend. Based on the 2016 novel by Jane Harper, The Dry became a huge hit in Australia earlier this year, in part because Australian movie theaters were open at a time when many theaters around the world were closed -- and there were very few Hollywood movies to show.
It’s not hard to see why The Dry proved so successful with audiences, since it effectively executes a familiar formula, with a recognizable star in the lead. Lately, the genre is more common to prestige limited series on streaming services than to theatrical feature films, but it’s still a well-worn narrative approach. Director and co-writer Robert Connolly gives The Dry enough unique elements to keep the movie engaging, though, and he has two major assets in star Eric Bana and the beautiful but foreboding Australian plains.
Bana plays Aaron Falk, a federal agent living in Melbourne who heads back to his rural hometown of Kiewarra following the death of his old friend, Luke (Martin Dingle-Wall). Aaron hasn’t been back to Kiewarra in 20 years, and he didn’t leave under particularly positive circumstances, which unfold in flashbacks over the course of the movie. He intends only to stay long enough to attend Luke’s funeral, but he’s quickly drawn back in by what one character refers to as the “black hole of Kiewarra.”
Luke’s death has been ruled a murder-suicide, with everyone in town convinced that he killed his wife and young son before killing himself. Everyone, that is, except Luke’s parents, who plead with Aaron to stick around and investigate further, even though local police have closed the case. Aaron was the lead agent on a major fraud case that made national headlines, and he’s clearly considered a hometown boy who went on to big things -- although not everyone appreciates that.
Aaron gets a room at the only local motel/bar, where he befriends Greg Raco (Keir O’Donnell), who appears to be the only police officer in town. Greg is overwhelmed by the horrors of the murder scene and the responsibility of the investigation, and he welcomes cooperation from a seasoned federal agent -- at least at first. Like all movie small towns where murders take place, Kiewarra is full of secrets, many of which connect back to the drowning death of teenager Ellie (BeBe Bettencourt), who was close with both Aaron and Luke when they were in high school.
Connolly lays out the requisite lineup of potential suspects for Luke’s murder, including Aaron and Luke’s old friend Gretchen (Genevieve O’Reilly), who’s also a potential love interest for Aaron and a connection between the current case and Ellie’s death 20 years earlier. Many in the town, including Ellie’s volatile brother Grant (Matt Nable) and Ellie’s dementia-afflicted father Mal (William Zappa), still blame Aaron and/or Luke for Ellie’s death, and Aaron endures harassment from various residents.
The dual mysteries unfold slowly and methodically, and the tone of The Dry can be a little, well, dry. Bana gives a strong performance as Aaron, but the character is so stoic and upstanding that it’s sometimes tough to engage with his emotions. It helps that nearly everyone around him is more demonstrative, and Bana has an appealing dynamic with O’Donnell as the younger officer who clearly admires and suspects Aaron. The romance subplot is a bit undercooked, and it ultimately serves the mystery more than it stands on its own. But Bana and O’Reilly have their own understated chemistry as well.
The plot and character types may not be especially fresh, but the setting is more striking and distinctive; an area of Australia that’s rarely spotlighted on screen. Opening title cards indicate that it’s been 324 days since it last rained in Kiewarra, and the murders are clearly just one more tragedy that’s befallen this hard-hit community, where local farms are almost all on the verge of going under.
There’s a stark contrast between the verdant landscapes of the flashback scenes and the arid terrain of the present-day narrative. The creek and lake where teenage Aaron, Luke, Ellie and Gretchen spent their time are completely dried up 20 years later. It’s a potent visual metaphor that also emphasizes how difficult life has become in Kiewarra, and how desperate people have become. This is a town where everyone is struggling; where people turn to drinking and gambling and anything else that allows them to escape for a little while.
It’s also the kind of crime-movie town where people say things like, “You think you’re going to get the truth in a town like this?” The Dry avoids the cavalcade of last-minute twists that often sink these types of movies and TV series, but the relatively straightforward answers make the finale a bit anticlimactic. That’s fitting for a movie more focused on mood and atmosphere than on intricate plotting. The Dry isn’t aiming to replace large-scale Hollywood thrillers, and it proves engrossing and satisfying on its own modest terms.
Starring Eric Bana, Keir O’Donnell, Genevieve O’Reilly, John Polson, BeBe Bettencourt, Matt Nable and William Zappa, The Dry opens Friday, May 21 in select theaters and on VOD.