This drama, which takes as its premise the unpromising idea that people who are dying of thirst discover themselves, works on some levels and fails on others.
The film looks beautiful, filmed in the sunlit expanses of the outback, and the characters are promising - there is Minna, the Russian immigrant geologist who has been living in the outback house for some years and wants to stay, even when the mining company who lease the house to her demand she leave and stop delivering her water, Boyce the mining company rep whose job it is to convince her to leave (he even tries to tie her up and kidnap her), and Kit and Zac - two young runaways whose car breaks down near the house.
When they are trapped in isolated house, the four strangers become closer as it becomes clearer they will all die.
Though quite well acted, I found the script a bit stilted in places, and some characters did things that did not seem in character - Boyce for example, overstepped the mark by tieing up Minna, and then he tied her in a very clumsy way so that she escaped and destroyed his fuel tank, meaning they were both trapped with no way of getting back. Why would all the fuel be in a drum on the back of the trunk when the truck's tank was almost empty - he was there for a day or two - why didn't he fill the truck's tank ready for the return trip. The plot seemed contrived to trap the four too far from water to walk for help.
Also, the characters didn't look like they were dying of thirst, even though they said they were. They were lucid and full of energy up to the end.
Apart from that, the characters were likeable (except for Zac who was a pain), and the photography made it attractive.
The film looks beautiful, filmed in the sunlit expanses of the outback, and the characters are promising - there is Minna, the Russian immigrant geologist who has been living in the outback house for some years and wants to stay, even when the mining company who lease the house to her demand she leave and stop delivering her water, Boyce the mining company rep whose job it is to convince her to leave (he even tries to tie her up and kidnap her), and Kit and Zac - two young runaways whose car breaks down near the house.
When they are trapped in isolated house, the four strangers become closer as it becomes clearer they will all die.
Though quite well acted, I found the script a bit stilted in places, and some characters did things that did not seem in character - Boyce for example, overstepped the mark by tieing up Minna, and then he tied her in a very clumsy way so that she escaped and destroyed his fuel tank, meaning they were both trapped with no way of getting back. Why would all the fuel be in a drum on the back of the trunk when the truck's tank was almost empty - he was there for a day or two - why didn't he fill the truck's tank ready for the return trip. The plot seemed contrived to trap the four too far from water to walk for help.
Also, the characters didn't look like they were dying of thirst, even though they said they were. They were lucid and full of energy up to the end.
Apart from that, the characters were likeable (except for Zac who was a pain), and the photography made it attractive.
