In Gregor Jordan's adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Tim Winton, the stunning landscape of Western Australia is the backdrop for an impassioned tale of love and grief. Stuck in a loveless relationship with legendary local fisherman Jim Buckridge (David Wenham), the despondent Georgie (Kelly Macdonald) becomes enamored with Lu (Garrett Hedlund), a young poacher who is encroaching on her tyrannical partner's territory. A reticent loner with a tragic past who gave up his life... (Full plot summary below)
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In Gregor Jordan's adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Tim Winton, the stunning landscape of Western Australia is the backdrop for an impassioned tale of love and grief. Stuck in a loveless relationship with legendary local fisherman Jim Buckridge (David Wenham), the despondent Georgie (Kelly Macdonald) becomes enamored with Lu (Garrett Hedlund), a young poacher who is encroaching on her tyrannical partner's territory. A reticent loner with a tragic past who gave up his life as a musician, Lu is wary of letting Georgie in. But their fervent attraction gets the better of them, and secrets are uncovered that will change their lives. When Jim finds out about the affair, Lu flees into the punishing terrain with no intention of returning, and Georgie sets off on a chase to bring her lover back. Three tempestuous characters, worn down by traumas, find themselves bound together and forced to face one another's inner conflicts in this blistering outback melodrama. Fuelled by the palpable chemistry between Hedlund and Macdonald, both superb here, Jordan creates a rousing romance set against unrelenting natural forces. Each character, including the overbearing Buckridge, is drawn with complex interior motivations. Dirt Music is about laying bare our vulnerabilities, and love's capacity to heal our deepest wounds.
Leave your thoughts about Dirt Music.
| The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisEvery so often, a movie comes along that isn’t particularly good, yet somehow gets to you — even as your eyes start to roll, they can’t look away. “Dirt Music” is one of those, a strangely fascinating delivery system for so much visual beauty that its flaws scrabble to gain a purchase. |
| IndieWireKate ErblandA gritty romance that only translates some of the source material’s poetic bent to the big screen. |
| Chicago TribuneKatie WalshThe film undeniably captures the breathtaking and unique landscape of coastal Western Australia. It's an incredibly beautiful film, but it's a challenge to emotionally connect to it. It feels like the outline of what would have been an epic novel, but in the translation to the screen, it has lost its interiority, and anything profound it might have communicated. |
| The GuardianLuke BuckmasterDirt Music eventually arrives at a deep, thought-provoking moment – but it takes the entire film to get there. |
| Screen DailyWendy IdeEven when Georgie and Lu share the screen, there’s a curious emotional distance which means that this theoretically torrid romance never fully ignites. |
| VarietyAndrew BarkerCentered on characters who act without much in the way of logic, with much of its dialogue confined to clipped bursts of unsatisfying Hemingwayisms, “Dirt Music” is a fine-looking romance that never finds the right key. |
| The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe corny, eventually rather contrived result doesn't end up doing justice to either its cast's talents or the quality of Winton's acclaimed prose. |
| The PlaylistRobert DanielsWhile Hedlund and Macdonald exhibit incredible chemistry, the outlandishness of the twists “Dirt Music” takes makes their performances nearly impossible to appreciate due to their cartoon buggery. Working with “Notebook”-level cheese, here the story’s stale. |
| RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonFor those who like their romance movies filled with unnecessary mysteries, murdered dogs, poached lobsters and the ghosts of deceased little girls, Dirt Music will fit the bill. All others need not apply, not even if you’re into the kind of Nicholas Sparks-style drama this movie shamelessly marinates in for an interminable 105 minutes. |
