‘The Stranger’ (The Stranger, 2022) has been released on Netflix, an intense Australian criminal thriller that is generating its simmering suspense to plot a terrifying and gripping story based on true events. It stars Sean Harris and Joel Edgerton, the two main stars, who are accompanied by other very well-off cast members like Steve Mouzakis, Ewen Leslie and Jada Alberts.
Written and directed by Thomas M. Wright (‘Acute Misfortune’) and is possibly one of the most patient and unusual crime films that have been shot in recent years. Very away from having great set pieces or moments of action interspersed in its development, it takes its time from the beginning only to reach an overwhelming emotional boil, looking for ominous atmospheres that get under the skin, while unbinding its core layer after layer.
The invention of post true crime
‘The stranger’ begins with scenes of a forest looking for something, when it abruptly changes Sean Harris on a bus. We are introduced to a sad and down on his luck ex-criminal named Henry Teague. He knows a man named Paul (Steve Mouzakis), who helps to remove his car from a deposit. Later, Paul helps Henry connect with a colleague involved in shady dealings. His name is Mark (Joel Egerton) and is a member of a criminal organization that only cares about Henry being upfront and honest with him, which is a problem since Henry Teague isn’t even his real name.
Thus begins the story of two men who are strangers, but who form an apparently brotherly friendship. However, behind this there are secrets that are gradually being revealed, related to a secret police investigation that sheds light on the truth of one of the largest kidnapping cases in the country. The screenplay is based on the non-fiction bestseller by Kate Kyriacou, ‘The Sting,’ on Australia’s Most Famous Undercover Operation and in each act he keeps the viewer guessing what is going to happen revelation after revelation.
What makes the movie interesting is how it breaks crime thriller conventions. There are no big car-chase moments, nor are crooked detectives beating up criminals to get the answers they seek. It’s psychological warfare in which Mark uses empathy as a form of slow manipulation, to gain Henry’s trust, but not only that. If you pay attention to the scenes where two detectives review evidence and background information, Mark also seems to be provoking Henry.
slow cooker heartache
Hoping to push him to snap and become vulnerable, he tests him by having him burn a car, which may bring back memories of a previous crime that the undercover officer is well aware of. The director resists the temptation to reveal any details of what Henry is hiding., working instead to suggest the unknowable. Characters tend to be seen in shadow, from a distance or with their backs to the camera, while poker-faced expressions behind bushy, unkempt beards mask their emotions.
The intense conversation scenes between the main characters are the highlights of the film, along with Mark appearing shaken by the events he is going through. Cinematographer Sam Chiplin captures the intensity of moments walking the line of the unsettling, in a way not unlike ‘Zodiac’, with which he has several details in common, especially the leave your detectives transformed by the experienceand contact with the human side of evil.
Wright and Edgerton focus on the routine of Mark’s isolation and subsequent exhaustion while police work is elusive with the rigor one would expect. ‘The Stranger’ plays with the dangerous line of attachment to the enemy, and how it goes far beyond the final result of an investigation. It is cryptic, harsh, sober and sometimes too disperse, its great handicap is reaching the end of a miniseries as impressive as ‘Locked up with the devil’ (Black Bird, 2022) because it conjures up similar sensations but with the advantage of placing similar dynamics in a prison pressure cooker