PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 4/27/07)

Previously adapted for the screen as part of Robert Altman's sprawling Short Cuts, the Raymond Carver short story "So Much Water So Close to Home" is transplanted from California to Australia in Jindabyne, the third film from Ray Lawrence (Lantana). Despite the change in scenery, the basic premise remains intact: while on a fishing trip, a group of friends happen upon the body of a dead woman. Instead of alerting the authorities right away though, they end up going about their vacation as usual, only reporting their discovery when they're packed up and ready to head home. Naturally, this decision baffles their families and friends and the guys themselves are at a loss to fully explain what they were thinking. The author tells the story through the eyes of one of the men's wives, who is deeply shaken by her husband's actions to the point where she's no longer sure she trusts him around their young son.

Out of necessity, Lawrence has expanded upon Carver's narrative for his film version, splitting the point-of-view evenly between Stewart (Gabriel Byrne), the one that first finds the body, and Claire (Laura Liney), his emotionally troubled wife. The director and his screenwriter Beatrix Christian have also invented a whole backstory for the couple — one that includes a temporary separation following the birth of their child — and several new characters, such as Claire's friend Jude (Deborra-Lee Furness), a middle-aged grandmother still grieving over her daughter's death. But Lawrence's most notable tweak involves the identity of the dead girl, who in this version is from an aboriginal family, thus interjecting the thorny topics of race and class into the conversation.

"So Much Water So Close to Home" is such a fascinating, morally complex tale, you'd have to work overtime to turn it into a boring film. For the most part, Lawrence has done a good job fleshing out aspects of this couple's personalities that Carver purposely left vague. Always dependable actors, Linney and Byrne contribute strong performances, although you can't help but wonder how two people who seem so desperately unhappy together chose to get married in the first place. The inclusion of the aboriginal storyline is very effective as well, adding a new dimension to this situation that still feels like a natural extension of Carter's original story. At the same time, Lawrence too often errs on the side of embellishing details that didn't need to be expanded upon. A subplot involving Claire and Stewart's son and his creepy friend is a distraction, as is Jude's conflict with a pretty schoolteacher who is dating her daughter's former fiancé. It's also telling that Lawrence felt the need to bring the story to a resolution that's more hopeful — although still far from happy — than either Carver or even Altman did. It's the difference between leaving the audience with something to think about and spelling it all out for them.

— Ethan Alter