Jindabyne - 6

A drama that connects the public and the personal, based on a short story by Raymond Carver (whose writings were used in Altman's Shortcuts). When Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) finds a body while fishing and waits to report it after the weekend, it causes a moral uproar in his troubled home and racially troubled town of Jindabyne, Australia. Stewart's wife, Claire (Laura Linney), is recovering from an alluded-to illness and feels lost as Stewart keeps his thoughts and emotions deep inside. As the town takes its own ignorant and overt revenge on Stewart and his friends, the bear down on this family, which includes a young son and Stewart's mother. The film ends with Claire's audacious attempt and partial success to reconcile with both her husband and the victim's family. The film is slow-moving and brooding with jarring moments of intensity, but it highlights the brokenness, personally and publicly, and the human longing for reconciliation.