Jindabyne is second or third hand goods. No problem in basing your film on a Raymond Carver story, they are a pretty good little basis for films. But the story in question “So Much Water So Close to Home” was already one of the nine or so stories interleaved in Short Cuts. Now Short Cuts itself is patchy, but this tale (some blokes go fishing, find a body and only decide to report after their holiday is over) is one of the stronger ones in Cuts. And the big blow up of this small story to fit it into an Australian race story seems a blow up too far. We get Laura Linney’s excess of empathy contrasted by her husbands lack – but as it stumbles towards a touchingly hopeful resolution it feels like its being overstretched. It also leaves the issue of the actual bad guy of the piece, the murderer, flapping in the air. Which is unfortunate for a UK viewer, because said murderer is the dead spit of Michael Eavis. You are never sure whether to be creeped out by his upside-down facial hair, or applauding his festival.
The other cultural aside I got from Jindabyne was Streets Ice Cream. Logo below.
The heart logo above is these days associated with Walls in the UK. And all over Europe this logo appears attached to a local ice-cream companies name. (Name the ones you can remember in the comments box.) It is an interesting way that Unilever (for it is their umbrella ice cream logo) deals with international branding. Rather than create an uber-ice cream brand, they stick to well known local providers, unifying them under this raspberry ripple heart aka the Heartbrand. Which sounds like some sort of superhero. Can you also think of other logos which span multiple brand names around the world, cos I can’t.
(Your starter for ten: It is called Ola in Holland).