Wish You Were Here (2013)

Such a frustrating disappointment

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Wish You Were Here is a very good film, that falls a little short of being great.It had a very good cast who acted well in it, where it falters a little is probably the dialogue and the amount of drama. I mean do I really need to see kids yelling and banging things, that time could be used instead to show some enjoyable moments on the trip before things turn sour. I also think the sum of what happened was revealed all too late and then it all sort of ends abruptly. Teresa Palmer, very alluring in this.

This movie only manages to keep viewers vague interest. It also is unconvincing in its plotting and characterisations. Teresa Palmer is given a plain boring role but still manages to give it a good shot, where as Joel Edgerton is pretty week, trying to be mysterious but giving us little reason to care what he's hiding. The movie is well shot and has solid faming and colour but also comes off like a Bali tourism advert at times. The central mystery just isn't that compelling and whatever tension is there throughout the story quickly deflates rather than explodes like it should. It just simply isn't worth an hour and a half of your time.

Sometimes I wonder what it must take to keep some people happy with their movies. Here is a taut thriller with unexpected twists and turns, complexity and intriguing characters. Actors who you can't take your eyes off, locations to die for. I think perhaps some viewers simply want to be spoon-fed on the usual stodge so they don't have to think too much, just let their digestive system do all the work for them. There's no need for me here to go over any of the plot, scenes or theme as it's already been outlined. But it may be useful for me to point out that for some who may be Americo-centric in their outlook that there is another world out there, many in fact, than may not exist in your philosophy. This film is engaging, indeed compelling in its storyline, utterly believable if you know anything of the real world, the acting moving and impressive, the actors very easy on the eye as well, the action intense - those Asian mafia were truly menacing - and if it's a little too hard in your thinking to integrate a thriller with a deeper investigation of human relationships then perhaps this movie will be beyond you and you should stick with your usual suspects. Highly recommended.

Two Sydney couples vacation in Cambodia, drop some E, and then one of them doesn't return. One wades through 90 minutes of feints and starts, red herrings and miscues, script McGuffins and irrelevant intrigue, all to get to the punchline, the climax, the upshot, the endpoint of what happens to Jeremy. You'll find out, in due time, boredom having grown sufficiently intense within you, only to realize knowing is not worth the tedium. We spend pointless time being faked out by the subplot that Steph, Jeremy's girlfriend, slept with sister Allison's husband (the wag in me watched this and kept saying, "no they didn't!" because it is miring digression that bears little credibility and no relevance). Australia's film industry can do way better than this jaded, cynical, unoriginal, stereotype-laden confection. I hope.