Simon Stone, the wunderkind of Australian theatre, directs his feature film debut with this radical adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. Transposing the story to contemporary, rural Australia, Stone’s film is a beautifully measured drama with a keenly observed sense of small town sensibilities.
Christian (Paul Schneider) returns to his hometown to attend his father Henry’s (Geoffrey Rush) impending wedding to a much younger woman. There’s an icy, unresolved tension between him and his father, but he enjoys a fond reunion with his childhood friend Oliver (Ewen Leslie), also meeting Oliver’s teenage daughter Hedvig (Odessa Young). As the wedding nears, old secrets threaten a seismic shift in all their lives.
Stone expertly unpicks family skeletons with elegant, brooding subtlety, building to a finale with an implosive emotional charge. Where Rush and Neill (who plays family patriarch Walter) provide an established cinematic presence, rising star Young is arguably the film’s most sparkling performer: she’s mesmerising, full of youthful effervescence and an emotional authority that powers the entire film.