By the rules of the time, shes stuck with him.
Even for an Australian, it was difficult to decipher.
Jacob Elordi, in particular, seems to breathe his lines rather than say them.
Jacob Elordi in ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’Curio Pictures
But what is said is often beside the point: the subject here is silent suffering.
Elordi, always a magnetic presence, embodies the force of the quiet man.
The 1943 Dorrigo observes; he registers pain; he endures.
By 1989, now played byCiaran Hinds, he still cant speak of the things he has seen.
Actually, he doesnt want to speak about anything.
Braiding together two timeframes without tangling them into knots is a challenge that defeats many filmmakers.
Shaun Grants script pulls off this trick with the smooth elan of a conjurer.
How well its moody atmosphere and slowly unfolding story will play in a loungeroom is open to question.
In the cinema, it is utterly immersive.
