It is rare to see a movie where the dirt feels like a character. Honestly, in the 2021 Australian thriller The Dry, the dust practically has a speaking role. We see Eric Bana as Aaron Falk, a federal agent returning to his drought-stricken hometown for a funeral, and he looks tired. Not just "I need a coffee" tired, but the kind of bone-deep exhaustion that comes from carrying two decades of secrets. Based on Jane Harper’s massive bestseller, this film didn't just succeed because of the plot. It worked because Eric Bana understood exactly how to play a man who is terrified of his own memories.
Australia produces these gritty, sun-bleached "outback noirs" better than anyone else in the world. You’ve got the heat, the flies, and the local resentment that simmers just below the surface. People in Kiewarra, the fictional town, haven't forgotten what happened twenty years ago. They think Falk is a killer. Or at least, they think he knows who killed a local girl back when they were teenagers. When his childhood best friend, Luke, is accused of murdering his family before turning the gun on himself, Falk comes back to pay his respects. It goes poorly.
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Why Eric Bana and The Dry redefined the Aussie noir
Usually, when we think of Eric Bana, we think of the heavy hitters. Black Hawk Down. Munich. Hulk. But there is something about him in The Dry that feels significantly more grounded. He’s back on home turf. He isn't playing a superhero or a Special Forces operator; he’s playing a guy with a badge and a lot of baggage.
The movie was a massive hit in Australia, grossing over $20 million AUD at a time when cinemas were still struggling. That isn't an accident. Bana hasn't really led a domestic production of this scale in years, and his presence brought a certain weight to the screen. Director Robert Connolly, who worked with Bana again on the sequel Force of Nature, leans into the stillness. There are long stretches where Bana doesn't say a word. He just looks at the cracked earth. He watches the way the locals look at him. You can see the gears turning.
The plot moves back and forth between the present-day investigation and the 1990s. We see a younger Falk, played by Joe Klocek, and the contrast is startling. While the young version is full of frantic energy and fear, the adult Falk is a wall of granite.
The brutal reality of Kiewarra
The setting is basically a furnace. Kiewarra is dying. The river is gone. Farmers are losing everything. This environmental pressure cooker makes the central mystery—did Luke really kill his wife and child?—feel inevitable. If the land is dying, maybe the people are too.
Connolly used actual locations in the Wimmera region of Victoria to capture this. It looks miserable. It looks hot. You can almost feel the grit in your teeth while watching. It's the polar opposite of the glossy, over-saturated mysteries we usually get from Hollywood. In The Dry, the lack of water acts as a metaphor for the lack of truth. Everything is dried up, brittle, and ready to catch fire at the slightest spark.
Dealing with the "Who Done It" fatigue
Let’s be real. We’ve seen a thousand detective movies. Usually, the detective is a brilliant alcoholic with a broken marriage. Falk is different. He’s competent, sure, but he’s also deeply unwelcome. He’s not there to be a hero; he’s there because Luke’s father begged him to look into the finances.
- The local cop, Greg Raco (played brilliantly by Genevieve O'Reilly), provides the only sense of stability.
- The townsfolk are hostile, led by a particularly nasty performance from Keir O'Donnell.
- The clues are small: a shell casing, a library receipt, a missing backpack.
Bana plays these scenes with a "less is more" philosophy. He doesn't do big monologues. He does small nods and squinted eyes. It's a masterclass in internal acting. If you watch his face during the climactic scene in the woods, you see a man finally letting go of a weight he's been carrying since he was seventeen.
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The impact of the film on Eric Bana’s career
Before this, people sort of forgot how good Eric Bana is at being "normal." We got used to him in big-budget spectacles. The Dry reminded everyone that he started in character work and comedy (anybody remember Full Frontal?). He has this ability to feel like a neighbor who happens to have a very dark past.
It also sparked a franchise. Because the film did so well, they adapted the second book, Force of Nature. While the sequel trades the dust for a rainy, dense forest, the DNA is the same. It’s about Falk being an outsider. It’s about the environment reflecting the internal state of the characters. But honestly? The first one is the lightning in a bottle. The drought is just a more compelling visual than the rain.
A breakdown of that ending (No Spoilers, Sorta)
Without giving away the specific killer, the resolution of The Dry is satisfying because it isn't some grand conspiracy. It’s small-town tragedy. It’s greed, fear, and a series of very bad decisions. The film makes you care about a girl who died decades ago just as much as the family who died last week. That is hard to pull off.
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The movie ends on a note that feels earned. Falk doesn't get a "happily ever after." He just gets the truth. And in a town like Kiewarra, that’s about as much as anyone can hope for.
Next Steps for Fans of the Genre:
If you’ve already watched The Dry and want more of that specific, atmospheric tension, your next move should be reading the original novel by Jane Harper. It provides a level of internal monologue for Aaron Falk that the movie—by design—keeps hidden.
After that, check out the 2024 sequel, Force of Nature: The Dry 2. It brings Bana back into the fold, this time investigating a disappearance during a corporate hiking retreat in the Victorian mountain ranges. For a broader look at the "Outback Noir" subgenre, the 2013 film Mystery Road and its subsequent TV series are essential viewing. They share that same DNA of a harsh landscape revealing the harshest parts of the human psyche. Finally, keep an eye on Robert Connolly’s future projects; his collaboration with Bana has become one of the most reliable partnerships in modern Australian cinema.