Kangaroo Island

Click here if you liked this article 12

https://www.cinemanova.com.au/films/kangaroo-island

Date Reviewed: 06/08/2025

Kangaroo Island is widely regarded as a must-see tourist destination, with its stunning visuals, diverse native wildlife, and unique unpredictability. The challenge for Australian director Timothy David, was whether he could get the same sort of praise for his debut feature film of the same name. The plot centres on Kangaroo Island locals Lou (Rebecca Breeds – TV’s Clarice, Home and Away), and her sister Freya (Adelaide Clemens – The Great Gatsby). Lou has moved to LA to try and make it as an actress. Freya has stayed on the island, raising a family, and finding religion. But when she is requested to return home by her father, Lou’s hesitation to do so, points to some unresolved tension back home on KI.

But does David succeed in earning the same praise for the movie, that the real-life location receives? Let’s start with the visuals. The film looks great. He captures the natural beauty of the locations, with the beaches looking like something Point Break’s Bodhi would rob a bank to fund a trip to. The camerawork strikes a great balance between still, clear shots showing the pristine beaches; and rougher hand-held shots mirroring the somewhat chaotic nature of some of the character interactions. David intentionally shoots that way, moving in and out of focus, making the viewer feel like they’re a fly-on-the-wall to a real-life interaction, rather than a scripted discussion. These stylistic choices work.

Next thing to assess is the local wildlife, or in the case of the movie - the performances of the film’s actors. The performances are all solid, from the main characters to the bit-part players. No-one is trying to steal scenes with over-acting, and the restrained performances, avoiding cliched-Australiana; add realism. While the acting is solid, the issue with the characters, is that none of them are truly likeable. While each character’s distinct flaws arguably assist with the film’s believability; it’s hard to be too sympathetic towards any one of them, save for Erik Thompson (TV’s Packed to the Rafters) as the girl’s father, Rory. It would work a little better if the viewer was really invested in seeing things work out for one of our main characters, flawed or not.

The last item on the list is the movie’s unpredictability. While there are interesting plot points that are drip-fed to the viewer throughout the 113-minute running time, the majority of these are telegraphed, and therefore, do not really shock when they hit. While these plot turns are not necessarily commonplace in other movies, the character’s behaviour in the first half of the movie, has an experienced viewer guessing what has happened before the reveal occurs. Based on this, the slow reveal via repetitive-style scenes, would benefit from some more aggressive editing.

On the positive side of things, debut feature writer (and David’s wife), Sally Gifford, is a gifted writer. Her ability to transition the characters both geographically and emotionally is clever. And the way she can consistently interpose humour throughout sobering scenes is something that more experienced writers can learn from. In the hands of a lesser writer, these scenes fall flat and feel forced. But here, they work. In fact, the injections of humour are some of the most (pleasantly) unexpected and satisfying parts of the movie.

In one scene, a character likens the drama playing out to an episode of Home and Away. And while everything - from the performances, to the clever dialogue, to the scenery- is far superior to the iconic Aussie soapie, essentially that is what we have here – an extremely well-done soapie episode.

Reviewed by Dion Gaunt