Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris deliver brooding performances as predator becomes prey in up-and-coming director Thomas M. Wright’s dark and intense Australian true crime drama.
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Based on the extensive Mr Big ruse that brought a notorious Australian murderer to justice… focusing on psychology more than procedure in its entrancing account of a most unusual criminal investigation.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2022
The Stranger 2022
“Based loosely on a real-life case involving the disappearance and murder of a young Australian boy in 2003, Thomas Wright’s intense and unnerving The Stranger envelops audiences in the dark shadows of Australia where one undercover detective risks his sanity to catch an elusive no-name drifter. Wright crafts a hyper-elaborate set-up and delicate drip-feed of information which make spoilers an equal crime, but The Stranger is more of a felt experience than a traditional policier; it’s all about the hunt, not the crime…
Joel Edgerton anchors the proceedings as only he can: an intense and brooding presence… Nobody better to convey evil, either, than British actor Sean Harris, his crooked features contorted into a waxy shapeshifter… For those new to the Sunshine Coast murder of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe and the subsequent hunt for his body and killer, the largest Australia had ever mounted, it’s never clear where Wright is taking The Stranger. It starts on the Glass House Mountains, with police conducting a forensic search, and violently jump-cuts back in time, to the dark interior of a bus at night, a disembodied baroque journey… which will only end with the film… There are secrets buried here, but the answers can only come from the dark human heart of The Stranger.” — Fionnuala Halligan, Screendaily