After The Dry smashed Australian box office records in 2021, making a sequel was an obvious choice. After all, author Jane Harper has penned a number of novels featuring Federal Police detective Aaron Falk, so it’s not like there’s a shortage of source material. And so it is that Force of Nature: The Dry 2 is landing in cinemas on August 24.
Both director Robert Connolly (Blueback) and star Eric Bana (also Blueback) return for a mystery that sees Bana’s Falk and fellow cop Carmen Cooper (Jacqueline McKenzie) investigating the disappearance of a woman (Anna Torv) on a corporate retreat in the remote Victorian mountains. Complicating things is the fact that the missing woman is a whistle blower who has been feeding Falk and Cooper info on her dodgy boss, and there’s a fair chance she didn’t disappear by accident…
Given The Dry’s critical and commercial success, it’s not surprising that the sequel has attracted a top-notch Australian cast, including Deborra-Lee Furness, Robin McLeavy, Sisi Stringer, Lucy Ansell, Richard Roxburgh, Tony Briggs, Kenneth Radley and Jeremy Lindsay-Taylor.
We’re in a bit of an outback noir boom at the moment, with screens both big and small dominated by the likes of Black Snow, Troppo, and soon Mystery Road mastermind Ivan Sen’s Limbo. Unlike the landscapes these works tend to be set in, the genre has proved fertile ground for Australian filmmakers, and the combination of compelling mysteries and a strong sense of place has turned out to be a winner with audiences as well, both at home and abroad.
Normally at this point we’d ask a rhetorical question along the lines of “Will Force of Nature continue the trend?” but let’s be real: if there’s one Australian film that’s a must see this year, it’s this one.
