The Stranger has recently been released on Netflix. It’s an intense Australian crime thriller that builds its suspense at a very slow pace to tell us a gripping story based on true and very sad events. It stars Sean Harris and Joel Edgerton. Written and directed by Thomas M. Wright, I believe it’s possibly one of the most patient and unusual crime films I’ve seen recently. It’s quite different from the true crimes we are used to watching nowadays.
Watching with no expectations
I love it when I start watching a movie but don’t have huge expectations set on it. What got me was the match percentage on my Netflix account and the quotes from The Guardian that came with the movie synopsis. They were mostly related to the acting of both leads. I’ve always been a big fan of Joel Edgerton, so it really caught my eye.
But I hadn’t read any reviews or articles about it previously and that’s one of the best things when watching a movie: when you don’t start it with high expectations. With The Stranger, it’s much better to let yourself be surprised and to try not to read too much about it beforehand, as the tension in the film builds slowly.
But… who is the stranger?
Henry (Sean Harris) is a sad ex-criminal. It is through Paul (Steve Mouzakis), a man he meets on a bus, that Henry is introduced to Mark (Joel Edgerton), a member of a criminal organization. Mark hires Henry and he is very concerned about Henry being truthful and honest with him. But the two are strangers to each other. What seems like a brotherly friendship between two lost men changes completely.
Both actors perform their respective roles splendidly. They are dark, quiet, inexpressive characters. Life circumstances have made them this way. And the duo formed by Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris is powerful, atrocious, a vis-à-vis full of moments of tension. Behind this relationship are slowly unraveling secrets, most of them related to a secret police investigation that sheds light on the truth of one of Australia’s biggest kidnapping cases.
Not the typical crime story
What makes the film interesting is how it breaks the conventions of the crime thriller. If you’re looking for incredibly shot crime scenes or car chases, this movie is not for you. It’s a psychological thriller in which one character uses his charisma to try to figure out all the secrets of the other. It’s really slow and takes its time from beginning to end with one goal: to reach an overwhelming emotional boiling point.
The screenplay is based on Kate Kyriacou‘s non-fiction bestseller, The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe’s Killer, about Australia’s most famous undercover operation. Because it’s a real case, it’s narratively limited by the events that happened, but it’s still a powerful and twisted case that the film presents in the most turbulent way possible.
The Stranger has many surprises and very clever narrative journeys. It also manages to build an atmosphere of suspense with very few and wisely used resources. If you like slow movies with tough, serious themes, based on true events, with sinister and dark characters, go for it. You’ll definitely love it!
The Stranger is streaming on Netflix!
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