Dark nights in the valley
In the Winter Dark
Directed by James Bogle
With Brenda Blethyn, Ray Barrett, Miranda Otto and Richard Roxburgh
At major cinemas
Review by Margaret Allan
and Francesca Davis
Something sinister is out there. It mutilates animals at night, yet makes no sound and cannot be found by the day. Four inhabitants of a beautiful but lonely country valley must stir themselves from their isolated existence and join forces to solve the mystery and save their animals, and perhaps themselves.
Ida and Maurice Stubbs have been on this land for 30 years, but they have never come across anything like it. Maurice believes it is a wild cat, but given what is revealed about his attitude to felines, can we trust his judgment?
This is not really a film about finding demons that lurk outside — what the four discover is something much darker that lurks within. It uncovers disturbing relics from the past that refuse to rest.
In the Winter Dark is a very moving, and often surprisingly hilarious film. Brenda Blethyn is wonderfully cast as Ida, giving a much better performance than in Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies. Ray Barrett gives a emotion-filled portrayal of her husband, Maurice.
The film is an extremely successful adaptation of Tim Winton's short novel of the same name. The script retains the simplicity and poetry of Winton's writing, and uses it brilliantly to convey the dark fears and emotions of the characters.
The tension is created as much by what is not said as by what is. Winton's knack of revealing the fragility and vulnerability of ordinary people trying to cope with life, and of showing how very different people try to find common ground, often with hilarious results, also comes through.
As the spectre of the elusive animal lingers, so it seems does Ida's lack of fulfilment, and the secret from the past that she and Maurice find impossible to articulate and resolve.
The scene that points to her immense loneliness is the only time she seems to be happy. Ida has an evening alone with Ronnie (Miranda Otto) while the men go hunting for the creature, and finds an opportunity to break free at last from the thankless routine of her country existence, even if only temporarily.
Maurice is an ageing man very set in his ways. He is painfully devoted to his wife but unable to communicate. He narrates the story, conveying a sense of chilling emotional isolation, reinforced by the physical isolation of the setting.
Ronnie, a sharp edged, defensive young woman whose dreams have come tumbling down, is portrayed as annoyingly helpless at times.
The paucity of information that creates the dramatic tension is also a little frustrating. Jacob, played by Richard Roxburgh, has fled the city. Why? What happened?