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The Stranger Reviews

Apr 23, 2025

Most of the screen is black most of the time. The acting is bland and the dialogue is uninspired. The overall plot is slow, boring, and needlessly bleak.

Jan 7, 2025

After seeing the high percentage of people liking this and appreciating the acting of Joel Edgerton we watched it. What a big time let down. This movie was terrible.So slow moving and boring. Please don’t waste your time. I’d rather watch paint dry. No bueno !!

Jan 3, 2025

Creepy and brooding - the excellent acting is bogged down by a plot that advances too slowly, and too predictably, toward a dark ending.

Jan 3, 2025

Man I love Sean Harris. Excellent gloomy style and delivery from the whole cast, thoroughly enjoyed.

Dec 31, 2024

Over-rated serial killer and crime drama is a little too slow for my taste.

Aug 16, 2024

This was slow but engaging. A little tough to follow at first but the 2 leads make this worthwhile

Aug 5, 2024

Starts off slow but gets addicting onwards. The acting by both leads is really good.

Jun 20, 2024

Stunning film. No other film in a long time had me as gripped and absorbed as this, even more so on the second watch. Truly visceral, but there's no denying you need to steel yourself for it. I particularly enjoyed the score, and the varying blends of tension and mood drifting throughout. Superb lead performances and a great example of a low budget/ big impact production.

Jun 5, 2024

Brilliant, just brilliant. Edgy, disturbing, paced, enough with out too much being said… do yourself a favour. Plug in and shake yourself.

Apr 21, 2024

Great acting and an enjoyable if very slowly developed story. The insidious undercurrent bubbling beneath the surface added a huge element of tension and jeopardy.

Apr 3, 2024

Great story, acting is superb!

Mar 31, 2024

A slow and tedious narrative; the only reason I persevered was out of curiosity for its conclusion. The work possesses a somewhat unremarkable premise, yet manages to present it reasonably well. Overall, it's a solid film for its genre, just not a masterpiece.

Mar 19, 2024

An interminable film, I watched to this to the very end, but only because I'd already invested too many precious minutes in it (sunk-cost fallacy). This is a prime example of a film without an assertive producer: someone who could discipline the director and prevent him allowing what should have been a gripping story from degenerating into a turgid mess. A pity, because there are some talented performances, striking cinematography and a good atmospheric score. It reminded me of The Irishman- another film that also appeared to lack a decent producer. As with Scorsese, someone needed to tell this director to can the boring scenes: long ones when the two main characters sit beside each other in a succession of cars; dull tracking shots of Australian roads: and frequent non-sequiturs that break the narrative flow. This is a film where nothing appears to happen, but the end comes and you realise lots actually has. And it feels far too long (nearly two hours but feels like three).

Feb 15, 2024

Decent movie. So many people looked alike I mixed them up sometimes

Feb 3, 2024

Excellent slow burn crime drama with hints of thriller. Very well executed, patient yet not trying. Delivers it's content on its own terms yet worth coming to grips with it's pace instead of demanding preconceived expectations be met. Unique, mature, worthwhile.

Jan 28, 2024

This is what Australian film makers should be looking at bringing to the table. Casting killed it on this one. Interesting story delivering really impressed me. Overall just a great delivery of a very raw thriller.

Jan 21, 2024

Didn’t love the movie because it just seemed insane that any police force could have such a massive and slow-moving undercover operation to investigate ONE suspect, again SUSPECT, in a murder investigation. But then, apparently this was one of the largest police operations ever in Australia.

Jan 17, 2024

Such an amazing film and story. Probably one of the best true crime films made in the last decade. This is brilliant. Acting wise it's perfect. Dialogue was perfect. The story was so captivating. Just a nearly perfect film.

Jan 11, 2024

It takes some time to fully grasp the bigger picture. We know that a guy is the main suspect of a crime that happened years before and the police don't have a proof against him. We know that the authorities are working on an elaborate scheme to trick him into a confession, but we don't know much about the suspect's personality, his motivations, the details and circumstances of the abduction or who the victim was. We're not even sure whether a seemingly nice guy is really a criminal. So we watch the story with little emotional involvement until very late when most doubts are cleared. And that is –at least for me–the main problem with this otherwise decent movie.

Dec 29, 2023

Only wrong thing about this movie (for me) was the more direct references to the detective's mental health which I felt wasn't necessary as it was obvious from the directing/acting. Other than that, a faultless and enjoyable movie!

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