Based on a very popular 2009 Australian novel by Craig Silvey, Rachel Perkins's Jasper Jones is a good movie in all respects, apart from being lumbered with I have to presume (since I haven't read the book) an oddly assembled narrative, that ends up prompting more questions from the viewer, than answers provided onscreen.
It's a late 1960s coming-of-age story set in the fictional southern Western Australian town of Corrigin, placid on the surface but with tensions roiling beneath its white picket fence exteriors. The titular character is not as might be expected the central protagonist. He, of indigenous blood, is but a support character, to Charlie Bucktin, who in his own words describes himself as a shy, bookworm in his early teens. At any rate, in the film's first few minutes, the pair head out into the moonlit bush, where Charlie learns a ghastly secret and has to make some tough choices.
There's a lot going on in Jasper Jones and many I think would argue too much in the narrative sense. Why for instance does Jasper seek out Charlie in the middle of the night, when its admitted they'd never had any form of previous relationship whatsoever, apart from knowing of each other's existence? Jasper and his best friend Jeffrey are supposed to be hideously bullied at school. Yet we never see any evidence of this apart from a fairly minor episode with Jeffrey at an after - school cricket practice. In fact there are no school scenes at all; a little odd, seeing Jasper's father Wes, is an English teacher at the local high school. Wes, in one of the many threads in this movie, emerges in our and certainly Charlie's eyes as the pre - eminent honourable character in the story. Yet later in the movie when Charlie and his significant other, Eliza (a terrific Angourie Rice), are desperately seeking an honest adult with whom to share some extremely disturbing news, Wes, bizarrely doesn't appear on their horizons. Instead, Charlie trundles off to report to another character we know he doesn't trust from events rising from another story thread. Get the picture! There's lots of things in Jasper Jones that just don't really add up. Concomitant to this, we have other sub - stories such as the one involving Jasper's mother Ruth, which you just feel probably should belong in a completely different movie. It's also pretty galling to ultimately find out, that the so - called central mystery of the film would have been revealed in the first act, if 2 of the major characters had bothered to be less obtuse with one another in their many frequent exchanges. Of course this occurring would have made for a much shorter feature.
It's a shame because as mentioned above, Jasper Jones in all other respects is a production of high standards. The cinematography is first class, with the timber town of Pemberton and its surrounding karri forests, presented as, superficially anyway, a somewhat idyllic, summer setting. The acting is collectively strong, with standouts for me, being the aforementioned Rice. Hugo Weaving playing a Boo Radley type character with secrets to be revealed in the film's second half doesn't disappoint. And as intimated above, a perplexingly underused Dan Wyllie as Wes, who you feel really should have played more of a dominant role in the third act. The musical soundtrack assembled by Antony Partos is spare, whilst always being suitably evocative of the location and its era.
What's ends up missing in this comely, Antipodean coming-of-age drama is that firmer rendering, making its main story more compelling and defined.
It's a late 1960s coming-of-age story set in the fictional southern Western Australian town of Corrigin, placid on the surface but with tensions roiling beneath its white picket fence exteriors. The titular character is not as might be expected the central protagonist. He, of indigenous blood, is but a support character, to Charlie Bucktin, who in his own words describes himself as a shy, bookworm in his early teens. At any rate, in the film's first few minutes, the pair head out into the moonlit bush, where Charlie learns a ghastly secret and has to make some tough choices.
There's a lot going on in Jasper Jones and many I think would argue too much in the narrative sense. Why for instance does Jasper seek out Charlie in the middle of the night, when its admitted they'd never had any form of previous relationship whatsoever, apart from knowing of each other's existence? Jasper and his best friend Jeffrey are supposed to be hideously bullied at school. Yet we never see any evidence of this apart from a fairly minor episode with Jeffrey at an after - school cricket practice. In fact there are no school scenes at all; a little odd, seeing Jasper's father Wes, is an English teacher at the local high school. Wes, in one of the many threads in this movie, emerges in our and certainly Charlie's eyes as the pre - eminent honourable character in the story. Yet later in the movie when Charlie and his significant other, Eliza (a terrific Angourie Rice), are desperately seeking an honest adult with whom to share some extremely disturbing news, Wes, bizarrely doesn't appear on their horizons. Instead, Charlie trundles off to report to another character we know he doesn't trust from events rising from another story thread. Get the picture! There's lots of things in Jasper Jones that just don't really add up. Concomitant to this, we have other sub - stories such as the one involving Jasper's mother Ruth, which you just feel probably should belong in a completely different movie. It's also pretty galling to ultimately find out, that the so - called central mystery of the film would have been revealed in the first act, if 2 of the major characters had bothered to be less obtuse with one another in their many frequent exchanges. Of course this occurring would have made for a much shorter feature.
It's a shame because as mentioned above, Jasper Jones in all other respects is a production of high standards. The cinematography is first class, with the timber town of Pemberton and its surrounding karri forests, presented as, superficially anyway, a somewhat idyllic, summer setting. The acting is collectively strong, with standouts for me, being the aforementioned Rice. Hugo Weaving playing a Boo Radley type character with secrets to be revealed in the film's second half doesn't disappoint. And as intimated above, a perplexingly underused Dan Wyllie as Wes, who you feel really should have played more of a dominant role in the third act. The musical soundtrack assembled by Antony Partos is spare, whilst always being suitably evocative of the location and its era.
What's ends up missing in this comely, Antipodean coming-of-age drama is that firmer rendering, making its main story more compelling and defined.