Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Peter Weir has built a career out of examining conflicts from an internal perspective. No matter what his characters are faced with, Weir would rather chart their internal reactions than their actions in the face of adversity. This dedication to character over plot is evident right away here in his sophomore movie, Picnic at Hanging Rock.*

Starring no one I've ever heard of, seriously, this movie is so commonly mistaken for a true story that even I thought it was real. By the end of the thing, credulity would have been stretched regardless but I was still willing to bite. The idea is that a class of girls in Australia in 1900 travel to Hanging Rock near the Outback for a picnic on Valentine's Day. Four girls go exploring and only one comes back (unfortunately, the annoying one). Like Reservoir Dogs or the Hangover, the central event of the movie is never witnessed. Not only do we not know what happened on the rock, we will never know exactly what went down. So don't watch this if you want concrete answers. There is a creepy air to the whole thing (although the first 20 minutes are excruciating since you don't know how long the story is going to play out) as characters are introduced, theories are created, authorities become involved and nothing much happens. The real revelation here is that we aren't really watching a movie about some girls vanishing, we are watching the story of Sara. Sara is an orphan who is left behind from the field trip and most definitely would have joined Miranda (the ethereal beauty who leads the girls on their ill-fated trek) had she been there. While all the hoopla is going on with the search for the missing girls, Sara is having a quiet battle of wills with the headmistress of the school, Mrs. Appleyard.

Everything goes a little Charles Dickens by the end but, mostly, the story holds up. Apparently, Weir looked for Australian bumpkins to play the girls at the school and ended up hiring a bunch of non-actors. This becomes painfully obvious from the stilted line readings and general suckiness of the performances. Also, the score is overwrought and Weir makes some shockingly bad decisions that ramp up the melodrama. Despite all these flaws, the story is compelling and engaging enough to keep you watching. If you like Weir's later works, you may like this one as well. For me, one viewing was enough but I see in this one the seeds of both Weir's future strengths (strong characterizations, mostly clear storytelling) and weaknesses (over-reliance on schmaltz and heartstring abuse). Watch with caution.

Josh

*If Weir's name is not familiar please run out and rent Gallipoli, Witness, Mosquito Coast, Dead Poet's Society, Fearless or the Truman Show.