SWERVE

Australia, 2011, 85 minutes, Colour.
Jason Clarke, Emma Booth, David Lyons, Travis Mc Mahon, Vince Colosimo, Roy Billing, Chris Haywood, Robert Mammone.
Directed by Craig Lahiff.

Swerve is the movie equivalent of a paperback thriller that you can read quickly, turn the pages, enjoy the moment and the puzzles – and then forget.

It certainly looks good with its desert and small mining town settings out the back of Broken Hill and the north of South Australia. It is also well-paced and edited, especially the rather numerous swerves as vehicles avoid accidents (or not) or careen almost out of control. That’s how the film opens.

Into potential trouble comes a stranger who gives a stranded woman a lift. Big mistake, and disastrous consequences. He is a pleasant man (David Lyons), meets the local police chief (Jason Clarke) who turns out to be the husband of the woman from the lift. They seem to be wealthy, have a nice house (which is going to reappear when the killings start), but she was running away.

So, we have echoes of Wake in Fright as we meet the various types around the town, some good (Ray Billings and Chris Haywood who do not survive all that long), some jealous (Vince Colossimo) and some really bad. This is especially true of the drug dealer (with corrupt cop themes as well) who offed the courier who swerved in the desert as the film began.

Then the pursuit starts, involving an abandoned silver mine as well as a rush to catch the Indian Pacific from Broken Hill – and, a throwback to old westerns, a train pursuit and the villain on the train roof. In the meantime, our hero has got himself tangled with the wife, a femme fatale, as well as her brutal husband, a corpse in the mine shaft and a possible murder charge.

Beware hitch-hikers.

It all moves rapidly but then you think about the plot-holes, especially concerning the literal hole at the mine and how to get down and, especially, how to get out.

Director, Craig Lahiff, has made Heaven’s Burning with Russell Crowe and the film about the Max Stuart case in the 1950s, Black and White.

1. Thriller? Potboiler style?

2. An Australian story, universal story: characters, drug issues, police corruption, life in a small town?

3. The desert settings, the opening and the literal swerve, the town, its size, the shops, the hotel, the policeman’s home, the mine and the shaft, Broken Hill and the railway? Authentic?

4. Editing and pace, cars and pursuits, the murders, the issues in the mine, in the train, on top of the train? The musical score?

5. The title, literal car swerves? The characters and their moral swerving?

6. The introduction with the car, the dealer, his appointment, the drug policeman, the confrontation, the death? The money? The tone of the film?

7. Colin, driving, swerving to avoid Jina? His giving her a lift? The discovery of the money after visiting the crash site? His going to the police, wanting to give over the money? His contacting the policeman, getting the lift to the house, discovering the truth about the policeman and Jina? In the town, the clashes with Sam? Jina, the meal, her swimming, seductive, staying the night? Her appeal for him to help? The sexual relationship? Frank and his brutish control? The money? The corrupt policeman, wandering the town, the deaths, the good man in the police station, Armstrong and his trying to tow the car? The events in the mine? Colin discovering the corpse? The car keys? Frank and his escape from the mine? Colin and his being trapped, going with Jina, getting into the train, the fight in the train, on the roof, the corrupt cop, Frank? His return to the town, for truth and justice?

8. Jina, her life in the small town, her leaving, her encountering Colin, going back to the house? Married to Frank? The truth about her past, police protection? A femme fatale, gradually revealed? Inviting Colin to stay, the swim? Her wealth, using Colin? Her previous relationship and her lies, the corpse in the mine? Covering the hole, trying to kill Colin? His escape? Waiting at the train – and her fate on the train?

9. Frank, his place in the town, sent from Sydney? His relating to the people in the bar, to Sam, the clashes, Sam’s jealousy? Meeting Colin, inviting him to stay, taking the money, hiding it in the house, in the car and the mine? The corrupt cop, the chases? His plan to leave, taking the money, going to Broken Hill? The mine? The train, the pursuit? The final confrontations?

10. The drug dealer, his being revealed as a corrupt policeman? The network, Frank’s involvement? His murders, ruthlessness? In the police station, at the car crash site? In the house, the confrontation with Sam? His pursuit of Frank? The train? Police corruption?

11. Sam, jealous, with Frank, with Jina, denouncing Colin?

12. The corpse in the mine, Jina and her past?

13. The popular ingredients for a popular thriller?