Blueback (2023) - Movie Review

I haven't had the best luck with Tim Winton. I’ll admit that I haven’t read any of his books (far as I can remember, at any rate), and while I do like to highlight local talent in these reviews, the last two films I’ve looked at based on his work were differing kinds of “really not my thing”. With Breath, it was the jarring and rather unsettling exploration of sexuality, specifically between an underaged boy and a grown-ass woman, which just left a bad taste in my mouth. And with Dirt Music, I didn’t even get that much taste, despite it looking rather nice. Thankfully, this doesn’t feel as gross to watch as Breath… but unfortunately, that means it leans more into the Dirt Music side of things.

As well as its positives, to be fair. For a story involving a lot of underwater footage and with an intent to make the audience care about the local marine life, director Robert Connolly and DPs Andrew Commis and Rick Rifici sure give their all into making the ocean look quite breathtaking. It had a similar effect on me as The Dive, only without the sense of dread that this vast body of water would swallow me whole if I dared enter it. Instead, there’s a sense of communal connection between the locals, in particular Abby (Mia Wasikowska/Ilsa Fogg/Ariel Donoghue) and her mother Dora (Liz Alexander/Radha Mitchell), and the land they inhabit.

From there, the film pulls no punches in its activist leanings, with Abby and Dora shown as taking part of a local effort to stop damage to the reef and wildlife from developers trying to chip through it to allow ships in. When I say that the coming-of-age arc for young Abby is one of radicalisation, I’m not saying that as an inherently bad thing; we live in a country with the world’s largest coral reef, which has been dealing with issues of coral bleaching and outright destruction for many years now, so it makes sense to highlight the need to protect it from capitalist interests.

However, as noble as the goal is, it doesn’t hit as hard as it feasibly should be, given the need for urgency in communicating these matters to the public. And no, for a weirdly refreshing change, this isn’t a matter of the film being too blunt or forceful about its messaging. I may not be as receptive to the personal connection to nature shown here as in, say, Sweet As, but the scenes with Abby and Dora as they take up the fight and, at turns, remind each other of why they’re fighting it hit the right notes.

The problem comes with the connection to the people on-screen specifically, Abby in particular. The impetus for her own involvement with the cause is her bonding with the titular Blueback, a blue groper native to the area. While the puppetry used to bring the groper to life is rather impressive, and a welcome switch-up from the CGI that most other films would have insisted on using, but there’s a lack of spark in their relationship to really sell the resulting actions. For contrast, look at Avatar: The Way Of Water, which managed to humanise the alien whale Payakan to the point of making him the best character of the whole film, and I say that as someone who turned around on basically all of the returning characters in that story.

Honestly, that’s my main issue with this whole thing, and I can’t help but think that this would’ve played better if I watched it back at the start of the year when it first came out. Everything that this film attempts, from the environmental messaging, to the thematic connections to the natural world, to its photography of said natural world in all its splendour, has been handled better and in more engaging ways in other recent films, leaving this somewhat floundering to reach that same level. I don’t have any strong feelings towards it one way or another, which isn’t ideal for a piece of art that’s meant to create a need to become involved in the presented cause.