Four Australians go vacation in Cambodia. Only three return. The film opens with a dazzling montage of the sights and sounds of the Cambodian trip, culminating in the night when the one man disappeared. Then it jumps ahead as two of the remaining three - Dave (Joel Edgerton) and Alice (Felicity Price, who also co-wrote the film) - come home, leaving behind Alice's sister Steph (Teresa Palmer) to search for her missing boyfriend. At first they try to get back to normal, but it soon becomes clear that Dave is hiding something, and the stress of the secret fractures their marriage.
Anchored by a riveting performance from rising star Joel Edgerton (Warrior), Australian director Kieran Darcy-Smith’s debut feature maintains a vice-like grip that reaches maximum intensity as the mystery is solved. Co-written by the director and his wife, Felicity Price, who also acquits herself effectively in a lead role, the film begins with a cunning false clue.
In its mature examination of the corrosive effects of crisis on the fabric of family life, and also in its defining sense of place, Wish You Were Here at times recalls another Australian film, Ray Lawrence’s superb 2001 psychodrama Lantana.
The film teases the audience into believing Jeremy’s disappearance will remain unsolved, but Darcy-Smith and Price’s screenplay kicks into a final round of meticulous plotting that satisfyingly clarifies the events of that night and makes retroactive sense of Dave’s erratic behavior since returning.
This kind of character-driven suspense can be challenging to sustain, but Darcy-Smith achieves that with the assurance of a far more experienced filmmaker. He also displays an impressive grasp of rhythm and composition, aided by editor Jason Ballantine’s dexterous cutting and by cinematographer Jules O’Loughlin’s lustrously textured HD visuals, which have the stinging lucidity and restlessness of a wide-awake nightmare. This is terrific stuff. [EDITED]


Hollywood Reporter
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