Writer-director Ivan Sen’s Australian crime dramas Mystery Road and Goldstone both feature Sen’s wholly original protagonist Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pederson). Swan is an indigenous police investigator who must face racist locals and his own demons. Pederson’s performances in both movies are very strong, bringing out the inner conflict within a guy who needed to leave his hometown and his marriage but is tormented by the consequences of those decisions.
In the contemporary murder mystery Mystery Road, Detective Swan returns to his small town in the Australian outback to encounter racist co-workers, a drunk and shiftless ex-wife and a resentful teenage daughter. The daughter is a concern because her gal pals are starting to turn up murdered one by one. Mystery Road is a solid but unexceptional police procedural except for two things: the movie’s climactic gun battle between guys using hunting rifles through telescopic sights – a real show stopper .
Hugo Weaving chews up some scenery with a supporting role as a cop with ambiguous motivation. Weaving, with his supporting roles in The Matrix, V for Vendetta, Lord of the Rings, Transformers, etc., may be the world’s most financially successful character actor.
In Goldstone, Swan is still reeling from a family tragedy when he finds a dark personal tie to the latest crime scene. Alcohol doesn’t help. A missing persons case brings Swan to a remote mining outpost. There’s a young local cop of ambiguous motivation – will he obstruct Swan, compete with him or become an ally? The local cop is working a human trafficking case, and the two cops pursue their investigations on dueling separate tracks until they inevitably converge.
Once again, the great Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook) plays a peppy, ever-pleasant cutthroat as only she can.
The dialogue and most of the plot in Goldstone are pretty paint-by-the-numbers, but just as with Mystery Road, the character of Jay Swan and the performance by Aaron Pederson, along with the Outback setting, make Goldstone very watchable.
Aaron Pederson also stars as Jay Swan in the excellent television miniseries Mystery Road, which streams on Acorn; the first season also features Judy Davis.
Both Mystery Road and Goldstone played at Cinequest. Mystery Road can be streamed from Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox. Goldstone can be streamed on Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.