The Dry

A classic-style murder mystery set against a climate-change backdrop, The Dry takes actor Eric Bana (Troy, The Time Traveler’s Wife) back to his native Australia. Bana plays Aaron Falk, a big-city detective lured to the remote, drought-choked farming town where he grew up by a note saying, “Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral.”

Soon Aaron is investigating an apparent murder-suicide allegedly perpetrated by Luke, Aaron’s one-time best friend, leaving Luke dead in the dust and his wife and 10-year-old son shot dead in their farmhouse. The killings are attributed to Luke’s drought despair, but Luke’s parents are doubtful. They blackmail Aaron into helping their cause by threatening to expose his lie of 20 years earlier, when he provided an alibi for teenage Luke after the drowning death of Ellie, a girl they’d both flirted with. (The film’s title evidently refers to the bone-dry riverbed where the teenagers used to swim.)

With two murders to unravel in a small town where everyone harbors secrets and vendettas, The Dry is full of characters whose motivations aren’t what they seem, perhaps including Aaron and the woman with whom he reconnects after 20 years, Gretchen (Genevieve O'Reilly, who played Mon Mothma in two Star Wars films). She had been Ellie’s best friend and now works at the same school that employed Luke’s wife.

And so it goes — everyone is connected to everyone else, and to the murders, in both clear and unexpected ways. The film has been adapted from an award-winning best-seller by novelist Jane Harper, and the screenplay by Harry Cripps and director Robert Connolly skillfully boils it down into easily comprehended dramatic moments. Connolly’s direction is measured and unflashy, keeping the focus on people and plot, with just the right mix of dusty Outback atmosphere. The town’s single hotel-tavern is particularly well drawn, with its proprietor (Eddie Baroo) providing some much-needed humor.

The all-Aussie cast is an admirable ensemble — and the fact that you may not recognize anyone save Bana benefits the film’s unspooling dual mysteries, since everyone is a suspect. The solutions to each are carefully set up and telegraphed only when Connolly is ready to ramp up the finale.

The attention to plot is at the expense of character — while everyone is credibly developed, there’s no time for complexity and nuance. Aaron’s present-day life goes unexplored, and the most complicated character may be Luke, who’s already dead when the film begins (although his teen self is seen in the many flashbacks to that river). But no matter, the mysteries are The Dry’s reason for being, and viewers’ reason for watching, and the story is involving and largely unpredictable.

While it’s thrilling to live with some such stories for hours and hours — e.g., Mare of Easttown, The Flight Attendant, the new Only Murders in the Building — it’s also nice to settle into the couch for a well-told tale you know will be wrapped up in under two hours. For that satisfaction, tune into The Dry.

Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now available to rent via Amazon, iTunes, and other streaming platforms.

Photo: IFC Films