Jasper Jones

Australia 2017

Dir: Rachel Perkins

105 mins

Cast: Levi Miller, Aaron L. McGrath, Angourie Rice, Toni Collette; Based on the novel by Craig Silvey.

Rating: M

Small towns are a common location in Australian cinema, see The Dressmaker, The Year My Voice Broke, and The Dish. The concept of an insular, secretive town fearing those who are different is a central theme in Jasper Jones, one of the best Australian films I’ve seen in recent years. It’s 1969 in the fictional rural town of Corrigan, and a local teenage girl is found dead in the bush. ...

While the leads are all young teenagers, this is by no means a children’s story. From the opening moments the audience is confronted with a dark story about death, racial injustice, secrets and fractured family relationships.

... Director Rachel Perkins has done an excellent job in adapting the novel, a modern Australian classic by Craig Silvey. The serious themes do not overwhelm the narrative, as could have happened. Instead Perkins balances out the story with some lovely light-hearted moments. 

Jo Bradley, Film Enquiry

... the acting is superb. Collette revels in the role of a mum in the throes of mid-life crisis, and Weaving hits emotional highs in his one lengthy, impassioned scene opposite McGrath (who seems destined for big things). Miller, whose similarity to a young Russell Crowe is uncanny, demonstrates why he’s already an international star at just 14, anchoring the film as the wide-eyed Charlie. Devotees of the novel will find this a faithful rendering.

Nick Dent, Time Out

... The cast is uniformly good, especially McGrath and Miller, who gives a remarkably sustained lead performance as Charlie – alhough he’s frequently upstaged by scene-stealer Long. As the decrepit old hermit on the edge of town, Hugo Weaving continues his transition into the Grand Old Man of the Australian screen.

But it’s Toni Collette, impossibly vivacious as always, who registers most strongly. As Charlie’s mother – bee-hived, eye-shadowed, and straining at the bonds of a dissatisfying marriage – she switches from tenderness to frustration on a dime. ...

James Robert Douglas, The Guardian