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Young James (Reef Ireland) has just been released from prison where he was sent for drowning young Chris (Oliver Achen) when he was still a boy himself. Thing is, he doesn't know whether he has actually killed him, he had a epileptic seizure when or shortly after the boy drowned, and should his mother not persuaded him to confess to the authorities, he would have just fled the scene like little boys do. What made headline in this case though was that the body actually disappeared before the police even arrived at the scene, and James was a tailor-made culprit for the public, and since he due to his seizure could not say anything in his defense, it was easy to send him to jail. But now out, and met with suspicious eyes everywhere, and guilt-ridden on top of it, he tries to find out what has really been going on back in the day, and why Chris's body actually never has been found. But while investigating, he has to find out nobody is too keen about him digging further, and it deeply affects his mum (Kerry Fox) as well as an innocent neighbour boy (Charles Grounds) who just wanted to be friends with him, and the behaviour of James' former best friend Anthony (Thom Green), who was actually there when Chris died but whom James successfully tried to cover, really gets out of hands - and before he knows it, James is in it deeper than he ever intended to.

Despite being a whodunit, narration-wise, Downriver is a very lyrical film in tone, choosing an intentionally slow but well-flowing pace to tell its story, relying heavily on atmosphere rather than dialogue, getting the most of its locations, from its impressive landscape to trailer park tristesse, and keeping the mystery elements of the story subdued in favour of the characters' inner workings, represented by silences, gazes and the like. Now add to that some really strong yet subtle performances and you've got yourself a pretty good, rather unusual film!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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