Worth: $14.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Martin Copping, Tim Phillipps, Kate Neilson, Marsha Vassilevskaia, Alexandra Davies
Intro:
… a subtle but very real atmosphere of foreboding …
Nick Rice (Martin Copping) is a successful journalist – an Australian living in America, working for the LA Times. He has a partner, a young daughter, a drinking problem … and flashbacks of a woman and two children walking along a coastal path.
He receives two phone calls from Australia. One from his father’s retirement village saying that his aging dad has had a fall; the other from the real estate agent who rents out his property in the fictional Mornington Peninsula town of The Dunes. The agent tells him that the rent is unpaid and the tenants have gone AWOL. Before long, Nick is winging back to his small town home to stay at the abandoned house…
A third of the way in, and the film’s narrative feels unfocussed. The flashbacks may be intriguing, and you wonder what’s going on with The Dunes house. So far, this Aussie psychological thriller is stalling. But a knock on Nick’s door from a guy called Nighty – who wants help to get his car started – changes everything, and you are drawn in.
Nighty insinuates himself into Nick’s house, and a dark narrative based on the past gets into gear. Tim Phillipps gives Nighty just the right amount of menace under his matey exterior, helping to make The Dunes a surprisingly unsettling experience.
The supporting cast includes Marsha Vassilevskaia, who is believable as Nick’s old flame, Becky, while Copping (Scrublands) – who also wrote and directed – is solid as Nick.
Copping has delivered something imperfect but nevertheless impressive, especially considering the independent nature of the project and micro budget. He’s made the most of the Mornington Peninsula scenery, but best of all, he’s managed to create a subtle but very real atmosphere of foreboding, lifting The Dunes into quality genre filmmaking territory.
