Strangerland (2015), R, ★★

Joseph Fiennes and Nicole Kidman struggling.

There have been a lot of missing teenagers and little children in the media and in the ads because these young people run away with a lot of subjects in their minds. However, teenagers can blossom right in front of the parents' eyes and that brings a teenage boy or girl in another stage and also the parents on a different stage trying to protect children from more harm. So, what can opt them to run away from their parents? The movie tries to bring its eerie and delicate atmosphere into its ambiguity that sometimes the mood becomes so depressing that you even will care less on what the fates of each character will be.

Tommy and Lilly (Nicholas Hamilton and Maddison Brown) live with their parents, Catherine and Matthew Parker (Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes) in a desolate town on the Australian outback. Lilly is a 15-year-old girl who is being promiscuous as, for example, she greets an aboriginal repairman at the door during breakfast. Catherine told Lilly to throw away that tight outfit, which is the customary outfit for her life as of now as she has tight t-shirts and short jeans, even when she goes to school.

After denying their daughter their permission to go to a concert, Matthew rebuff's Catherine's sexual advances and are no longer living together. It was implied that Catherine cheated on Matthew and that also brings up as to why the moved to the desolate town. The reason was because they wanted to move away from Lilly's promiscuity. But, Matthew comments that Catherine is worse and knows where Lilly gets it from.

As Matthew stares blankly out onto the open, Lilly and Tommy jump over the fence and run away. The school reports that they have not been at school for many days, so they contact Detective David Rae (Hugo Weaving) to investigate the disappearance of both children. They are both looked at with disdain by the townspeople, learning what the daughter wrote in her diary and also being harassed when, for example, Catherine gets an anonymous call commenting that "she's a whore". We also learn that life would be very difficult for a person to run away and be lost in the desert with limited resources, having just 3 or 4 days to survive before they perish.

Feel those muscles, Lilly, as your brother looks distraught.

This movie was so languid in its artistry that one time I was dozing off at one point but it was sort of interesting because of how this film twists its story and characters as the movie progresses. As the daughter and son is still missing, the mother is so desperate for attention that she uses her promiscuity to persuade other men to have sex with her but she is denied. The question is: Is it because her personality influenced her daughter to become what she is and to run away? As she gets constantly denied, they are moments of realization of grief and pain and it is a parallel between mother and daughter.

Nicole Kidman is actually giving a subtle and distant performance but it is a haunting one as a mother who does not know that she is guilty of her influenced promiscuity until the moment of realization. It is one of the stronger performances from her for a while. Fiennes did not work as he is just directed to stare and not have any much character development. I think Hugo Weaving was quite restrained and strong in his detective role as he has good chemistry with Kidman in that particular scene in the car about why anyone could run away.

Director Kim Farrant has made a bland melodrama that is full of great and poetic imagery of the Australian outback but has very little to back that imagery up. It is just desperation and depression on the characters' part and where it leads to. But the third act made me frustrated because it leads to a pretentious and predictable paradox that you would have many questions. The movie ended on a blank slate that had so much going for it but we're left with a slow movie with great images and a few strong performances but a movie that becomes a bit self-indulgent to grasp the material with manipulation. It failed and left me cold.

**