The Rover plot lost in the bush as Guy Pearce rumbles and Robert Pattinson mumbles through unlucky country
THE Rover: Guy Pearce is ready to rumble, Robert Pattinson is ready to mumble in a movie destined to crumple under the expectations heaped on it.
Leigh Paatsch
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GUY Pearce is ready to rumble. Robert Pattinson is ready to mumble. The most promising Australian filmmaker of his generation is ready to … stumble.
So it goes for The Rover, the much-anticipated second feature from acclaimed local writer-director David Michod.
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Few would deny Michod’s 2010 debut offering Animal Kingdom was a world-class crime drama: an intensely unsettling study of everyday evil that hit hard, left bruises and made no apologies afterwards.
While The Rover carries the same air of malicious assurance as Animal Kingdom, it struggles to achieve anywhere near the same impact.
Proceedings commence on an intriguingly ominous note, courtesy of a single title card that announces we are now in “Australia. Ten years after the collapse.” Exactly what has happened will not be elaborated upon any further. All we can tell is that the economy packed up and left a decade ago, with law and order following soon after.
Welcome, then, to the run-out-of-luck-y country.
On a stretch of unmarked road along an unpoliced edge of the outback, a solitary driver named Eric (Guy Pearce) stops at a dive bar for a drink.
Before he reaches the bottom of his glass, a passing vehicle outside rolls and then crashes to a sudden halt. The three stunned passengers dust themselves off, jump-start Eric’s car, and barrel off down the highway once more.
Eric is none too pleased about the theft. He wants those wheels back. A return of the keys and a simple “sorry, mate” just won’t do.
Once Eric finally catches up with those three crooks, it is likely they won’t be long for what is left of this world.
That is about as much story as The Rover will be prepared to tell for its duration. With all details kept to such a bare minimum, Eric’s chase becomes everything. And yet, it ultimately amounts to nothing.
Though Michod is able to forcefully manipulate an atmosphere rife with personal despair and social anarchy, it remains difficult for viewers to take a close interest in what is happening.
What becomes annoyingly noticeable by the halfway mark is how desperately The Rover relies on sudden bursts of gunfire to get from one scene to the next.
Eric does most of the shooting, usually in a bid to end social interactions that are not going the way he would like.
While these sudden one-on-one assaults with a deadly weapon buy the movie a little time to shock and unsettle, they are mostly storytelling shortcuts that lead to nowhere in particular.
Same goes for the quizzical performance of Robert Pattinson, who plays the mentally challenged younger brother of one of the car thieves.
Though he and an admittedly convincing Pearce do find a rhythm of sorts in the later part of the movie, the Sling Blade-style voice Pattinson uses to chew on his dialogue is a choice that will be appreciated by few.
Despite superior cinematography and an undeniably compelling music score, this is one movie destined to crumple under the expectations many will be heaping on it.
Where Animal Kingdom kept dragging us towards its dark, dead centre — often against our will — The Rover just warns us to keep our distance and leaves it at that.
The Rover (MA15+)
Director: David Michod (Animal Kingdom)
Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, Scoot McNairy, David Field
Verdict: Two-and-a-half stars. Wheels aren’t all that’s missing here
Originally published as The Rover plot lost in the bush as Guy Pearce rumbles and Robert Pattinson mumbles through unlucky country
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