STRANGERLAND is one of the worst kind of bad films, in that it presents itself to be such a great film--takes itself way too seriously--all the while being an incomprehensible mess.

| Original Score: F | Sep 1, 2017

She is as invigorated by her missing daughter's sexuality as her husband is terrified. It's an interesting enough subtext, but foregrounded, it's not enough to carry the muddled movie that ensues.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 23, 2016

Strangerland runs out of gas, leaving us with a couple of final "Forget You" (shall we say) moments. Thanks. Thanks for nothing.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 14, 2015

Director Kim Farrant goes for a feeling that's as harsh, unforgiving, and wild as the land she lets the camera linger on, and it's the right idea when handling the potential melodrama of the material.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 16, 2015

erie and unpredictable, Strangerland holds attention, even if traditional suspense tricks are avoided like they were dingos at the daycare.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 13, 2015

Kidman's best performances have often been as grieving moms (Dead Calm, The Others, Rabbit Hole) and here she provides the flaccid movie's sole flash of daring and unpredictability.

| Original Score: C | Jul 10, 2015

Director Kim Farrant's debut feature is beautifully shot and offers some powerful, well-acted moments from a strong cast, but it's just relentlessly dreary.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 10, 2015

It certainly provides Kidman with some meaty, twisted material. But the film abandons the viewer in the end, leaving the audience as lost as those kids.

| Original Score: C | Jul 10, 2015

"Strangerland" ... strains credulity with its secrets and revelations to facilitate its surprises.

| Jul 9, 2015

The nagging sense sets in that Farrant and screenwriters Fiona Seres and Michael Kinirons are after something arty with their story, and the movie can't ambiguously end fast enough.

| Jul 9, 2015

"Strangerland" is an uneven but often mesmerizing film with a mood of quiet dread; you sense that something's lurking behind that dust, but you don't know what.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 9, 2015

The narrative machinery proves no more convincing than the underlying subtext.

| Jul 9, 2015

The brooding and emotional prickliness gets overwhelming.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 9, 2015

Director Kim Farrant paces her story deliberately, building up a heavy, almost oppressive tone, and Kidman takes advantage of it, burrowing into a complex and unglamorous character.

| Jul 9, 2015

It's hard to get over the movie's haunting atmosphere. It may be just another story of kids in peril, but this one's particularly hard to shake.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 9, 2015

Kidman clarifies as much as she can, and for a while the movie seems to be on her wavelength. Eventually, though, its mysteries get lost in the shadows.

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 9, 2015

The problem is, for all of the striving at depth, it ultimately doesn't make much sense.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 7, 2015

The disappearance of a married couple's two children plays out in dispiritingly predictable and melodramatic fashion in Strangerland.

Full Review | Jul 7, 2015

Yes, I know grief does strange things to people, and sex can be a way of expressing that distress, but making it the focus of Kidman's performance just seems forced and dramatically pointless.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 7, 2015

Strangerland operates as if under the presumption that the sketchiness of its various insights will be smoothed over.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 6, 2015