Australian teenager Heidi is left with little choice but to leave home after she's caught red-handed with her mother's boyfriend. With few options, Heidi ends up in Jindabyne, a tourist community. Upon meeting Joe at a bar, she pursues a relationship with him and tries to find something resembling a normal home life. Heidi makes small strides by getting a job and finding a place to stay, but her relationship with Joe must overcome more than its share of hurdles.
My impression remained this time around of an unfinished screenplay in which too many intervals of small talk masqueraded as the forerunners of emotional events that never materialized.
– Andrew Sarris,
New York Observer,
18 May 2006
fresh:
Heartfelt, painful, exhilarating and, above all, truthful.
– G. Allen Johnson,
San Francisco Chronicle,
19 May 2006
fresh:
[Cornish] creates a character who pulls us in and makes us recoil all at once.