Mystery Road (film)

Mystery Road
Theatrical film poster
Directed by	Ivan Sen
Written by	Ivan Sen
Produced by	David Jowsey
Starring	Aaron Pedersen Hugo Weaving Jack Thompson Ryan Kwanten Tasma Walton
Cinematography	Ivan Sen
Edited by	Ivan Sen
Music by	Ivan Sen
Release dates	5 June 2013 (2013-06-05) (Sydney FF) 15 August 2013 (2013-08-15) (Australia)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Box office	$280,702[1]

Mystery Road is a 2013 Australian crime film with neo-Western elements and setting,^[2] written and directed by Ivan Sen. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.^[3] A film sequel entitled Goldstone was released in 2016, and TV series in 2018, all featuring Aaron Pedersen as the brooding Indigenous Australian detective Jay Swan.

Plot[]

Near the rural town of Winton, Queensland, a truck driver finds the body of a teenage Aboriginal girl named Julie Mason inside one of the drainage culverts under the road. Newly promoted aboriginal Detective Jay Swan, recently returned from training in the city, investigates the murder. He learns that Julie was a drug addict who would have sex with truck drivers for money. He attempts to question another local Aboriginal girl, Tarni Williams, who was friends with Julie, but she refuses to speak to him. A neighbourhood boy tells Jay that he found Julie's phone and gives it to him. Jay finds several text messages to his teenage daughter, Crystal. He visits his ex-wife, Mary, and speaks to Crystal. He asks her if she wants to move in with him to his nicer neighbourhood, but she declines. Mary tells Jay that it is too late for him to be a father. Jay searches a farm near where Julie's body was found and meets its owner, Sam Bailey. Before Jay leaves, he sees a young man leaving in a white hunting truck. Jay later finds out that another teenage Aboriginal girl had also gone missing earlier.

Before dawn one morning, Jay goes to the radio tower where truck drivers would take girls, and Jay observes men taking something off a truck and driving it to what appears to be a drug lab. As he drives away, his police colleagues, Johnno and Constable Roberts, flag him down. Johnno attempts to intimidate Jay, asking if he has ever killed anyone accidentally. Jay later asks his boss about Johnno and is told that Johnno had some unspecified trouble in his previous assignment and had to transfer here, but that he is close to making some big arrests.

Jay visits the Dusk Til Dawn Motel, after hearing that Julie used to go there to sleep with truckers. When he asks the motel owner about frequent guests who stayed there on the night of Julie's death, she tells him about a white man registered under the name "William Smith", who drives a white hunting truck. Jay realises it might be the same truck he saw leaving Sam Bailey's farm earlier. He returns to Sam's farm, where he encounters Pete, who says his father isn't around, insults Jay, refuses to let him search his truck, and states that he works as a kangaroo hunter and is an expert shot. Jay goes back to the police station and pulls up Pete Bailey's police record, which shows a long criminal record, and that Pete had last been arrested for drug possession by another local police officer who had recently been killed on the job. Jay tries to find the investigation file of the slain police officer, but can't find it. Instead, Jay visits the young widow of the deceased police officer, who tells him that the officer had been called to work by another, unnamed police officer on the night that he was killed.

The next day, Jay follows Johnno leaving the police station in a police car. Johnno switches vehicles, parking the police car out of sight, and leaves in his own hunting truck. Jay then follows Johnno to a rest stop where he meets up with a local drug dealer named Wayne Silverman. When Jay later goes to Wayne's house, Wayne flees, but Jay catches and arrests him. Under questioning, Wayne tells Jay that he deals drugs to local Aboriginal girls and then prostitutes them out when they can't pay. He taunts Jay, by asking about Jay's daughter, Crystal. Wayne mentions that he stole a car that contained heroin, but he subsequently lost the drugs. Johnno interrupts the interrogation to release Wayne, who is his informant. Jay then discovers a further murder victim, Tarni. Checking on Crystal, he finds that Mary's house has been broken into and Crystal's whereabouts are unknown.

Jay stakes out the drug lab in the country, and sees a man in an orange car hand over Wayne to someone in a Land Rover. As he leaves, Johnno is waiting to tell him it's time they got something to eat together. At the restaurant, Johnno ignores his questions, but states that he is looking for something that's missing, implying that its discovery will keep Crystal safe. Jay abruptly walks out, and goes to search the house of the initial victim, Julie. It's been ransacked but he manages to discover several bags of heroin, hidden in the TV. He calls Johnno to arrange their return at a hill off Mystery Road.

When he arrives first for the drop off, Jay loads his hunting rifle and pistol. The orange car and Land Rover arrive and Jay hands over the heroin. Jay sees Pete's truck in the distance, and Pete uses his hunting rifle to wound Jay in the arm. A shootout ensues as Jay runs back to his car for cover. The man who is wearing a mask and was driving the orange car attempts to flank Jay but is shot by Johnno, who supports Jay with a scoped hunting rifle from afar. Jay and Johnno shoot several of the men dead. Pete and Johnno exchange long-distance shots as Jay kills all the rest of the criminals as they attempt to flee, and then disables Pete's truck when he tries to drive away. The two exchange fire from a distance and Jay kills Pete. After the gun battle Jay spots the dead body of Johnno, whom Pete had bested, and unmasks the car driver to discover he is Constable Roberts. Searching the Land Rover, Jay finds Sam Bailey shot through the neck, scratch marks on the backseat and a necklace with the name "Julie" on it.

At sunset, Jay returns to Winton and sees Mary and Crystal waiting for him. He gets out of the car, and the three stare at each other as the sun sets.

Cast[]

• Aaron Pedersen as Detective Jay Swan
• Hugo Weaving as Johnno
• Ryan Kwanten as Pete Bailey
• Jack Thompson as Charlie Murray
• Tony Barry as Sarge
• Robert Mammone as Constable Roberts
• Tasma Walton as Mary Swan
• Damian Walshe-Howling as Wayne Silverman
• David Field as Sam Bailey
• Bruce Spence as Jim, the local undertaker
• Jack Charles as Jay's uncle, "Old Boy"
• Tricia Whitton as Crystal Swan, Jay's teenage daughter
• Siobhan Binge as Tarni Williams
• Daniel Roberts as Macca
• Samara Weaving as Peggy Rogers
• Zoe Carides as Shirley, Motel Owner
• Roy Billing as Mick, Weapon Shop Owner

Reception[]

Critical response[]

Mystery Road received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a score of 92% based on reviews from 36 critics, with an average rating of 7.25/10.^[4]

Tom Clift of FILMINK called it a "masterfully executed slice of storytelling that rates as one of our finest films of the past few years."^[5] Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald also gave a positive review, commenting that "Mystery Road's links to the classic Hollywood western are as obvious as its hero's cowboy boots and white hat but they do nothing to diminish its Australianness."^[6] Craig Mathieson of The Sunday Age called it a "deeply satisfying and slow-burning modern-day western set in outback New South Wales, Ivan Sen's outstanding film Mystery Road bridges the current divide in Australian cinema with a prominent and precise work."^[7]

Not all reviews were positive. Alex Doenau of Trespass commented "There simply isn't enough dynamism to justify Sen's story. Australian movies have to work harder to secure audiences beyond those who go to them out of a sense of duty or worthiness; Mystery Road simply doesn't go that far."^[8]

The film was a rare foreign screening at the 2014 Pyongyang International Film Festival, North Korea.^[9]

Accolades[]

Sequel and spin-off series[]

Sen wrote and directed a sequel to Mystery Road, entitled Goldstone. Pedersen reprises his role, and joining the cast is David Wenham, Alex Russell, David Gulpilil and Jacki Weaver. A spin-off six-part TV series also titled Mystery Road screened on the ABC in 2018, with Series 2 shown in 2020.

References[]

External links[]

• Mystery Road at IMDb
• Mystery Road at Rotten Tomatoes