The Dry is a 2020 Australian mystery thriller film based on the novel of the same name by Jane Harper. Eric Bana stars in the lead role of Aaron Falk, along with Genevieve O'Reilly as Gretchen and Keir O'Donnell as Raco.
Federal Police agent Aaron Falk returns to his home town after an absence of over twenty years to attend the funeral of his childhood friend, Luke, who allegedly killed his wife and child before taking his own life - a victim of the madness that has ravaged this community after more than a decade of drought. When Falk reluctantly agrees to stay and investigate the crime, he opens up an old wound—the death of 17- year-old Ellie Deacon. Falk begins to suspect these two crimes, separated by decades, are connected. As he struggles to prove not only Luke's innocence but also his own, Falk finds himself pitted against the prejudice towards him and pent-up rage of a terrified community.
An upcoming sequel, Force of Nature: The Dry 2 has been produced, based on Harper's follow-up novel.
The Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: At the end of the film, Aaron discovers Ellie's diary and learns that her father Mal Deacon had been sexually and physically abusing her ever since her mother left. He then realises that Mal murdered her by drowning her in the river to prevent her from running away.
- The Bogan: Grant Dow embodies every negative stereotype of the Australian small town, working class, macho Jerkass.
- Bookmark Clue: Aaron is returning Karen's library books after her murder when he notices a newspaper article about himself with his phone number written at the top and the borrowing receipt with "GRANT?" written on the back wedged between the pages of one of the books. Both items prove to be important clues in solving the murders once he works out what they mean.
- Broken-Window Warning: After Ellie drowns, someone attempts to drive Aaron and his father out of town by throwing a rock through their window, and dumping a dead calf with its throat slit on their doorstep.
- Closet Gay: Jamie Sullivan and the local doctor are in secret gay relationship. Living in a small country town , they wish to keep it secret and it helps that they are both Straight Gays. However, Jamie's sneaking around inadvertently makes him a suspect in the murders as he stupidly gives a false alibi to the police rather than admit he was with his partner. Compounded because he was last person to see Luke alive.
- Dead Animal Warning: Aaron leaves the police station and discovers that someone has dumped a dead dog on top of his car; the blood dripping down the windscreen. Later, a flashback reveals that a calf with its throat slit had been dumped on the doorstep of the Falk family home when he was a teenager, accompanied by a rock through the window.
- Disappeared Dad: Luke turns out to be the father of Gretchen's child, a fact she keeps hidden from everyone.
- Domestic Abuse: Ellie's mother abandoned the family in order escape her abusive husband Mal. Unfortunately, Mal just redirected his abuse, both physical and sexual, to his daughter Ellie.
- Due to the Dead: Billy's classmates at the primary school plant a tree in his memory after he is killed in a family annihilation. The principal Scott Whitlam says to Aaron that he is not sure how he is going to explain it to the students when the tree inevitably dies due to the ongoing drought.
- Frame-Up: Luke appears to have killed his wife and child before shooting himself with his own shotgun - Scott Whitlam did all that.
- Fun with Homophones: When Aaron is returning Karen's library books, he discovers a newspaper article about himself—with his phone number written at the top—shoved in one of the books. Along with the article, he finds the borrowing receipt from the library with the word "GRANT?" written on the back. Aaron assumes that this refers to Grant Dow and that Karen had been suspecting him of something a week before she was murdered. It is only later when he sees some paperwork from the school that he realises that "GRANT" refers to an educational grant and Karen suspected that Scott was embezzling money that should have been going to the school.
- The Gambling Addict: Scott Whitlam. He moved to the remote country town of Kiewarra to escape his creditors, but they manage to track him down. He spends all of his evenings shoveling coins into the poker machines in the local pub.
- Gasoline Dousing: Scott Whitlam douses himself in petrol before attempting to commit Self-Immolation.
- Grumpy Old Man: Mal Deacon comes across as a bitter and vindictive old farmer, who lives like a hermit: never having got over his daughter's death 20 years earlier. The truth turns out to be far more sinister.
- Last Disrespects: Grant takes the opportunity to insult Luke's memory at his funeral, and directly to the faces of his grieving parents.
- Man on Fire: After being confronted by Aaron and Raco, Scott Whitlam douses himself in petrol and threatens to set himself, the school, and probably the surrounding town alight. He does ignite himself, but is beaten out by Aaron and Raco.
- Missing Mom: Ellie lived with her father and her cousin Grant: her mother having run off to escape her abusive husband. A flashback showing the Falks leaving town after Ellie's death shows that the household consists of just Aaron and his father, but it is not clear if his mother is dead or if his parents are divorced. What happened to Aaron's mother is revealed in the sequel Force of Nature: The Dry 2.
- Oh, Crap!: Aaron and Raco have a huge one when they see someone preparing to light themselves on fire. Not just because the person in question would die, but the countryside is so dry from the drought that the entire town could go up in flames as a result.
- Offing the Offspring:
- It is believed Luke killed his son at the same time that he killed his wife, while leaving his infant daughter alive, before turning the gun on himself. Aaron needs to investigate to determine if this is true. Turns out not to be.
- Aaron's final realisation is Mal Deacon drowned his daughter Ellie in the river to prevent her leaving him, and possibly revealing that he had been sexually and physically abusing her for years.
- Pater Familicide: Luke allegedly killed his wife and child with his own shotgun upon returning home, before he Ate His Gun.
- Red Herring: The blue colour of the shotgun shells used in the murder becomes important - Luke owned a different brand of shells, which used a red colored casing. As Aaron investigates, he finds a few people use the blue shells, setting them up as potential suspects.
- Reusable Lighter Toss: The killer douses himself in petrol and then drops his own Zippo on himself in an attempt to commit suicide by becoming a Man on Fire. Obviously, in this case, he felt he was never going to need the lighter again.
- Secret Relationship: Jamie Sullivan and the local doctor are in a secret gay relationship. Their sneaking around causes one of them to be suspected of murder after he gives a false alibi to the police rather than admit that he was with his partner.
- Self-Immolation: After being confronted by Aaron and Raco, Scott Whitlam douses himself in petrol and threatens to set himself, the school, and probably the surrounding town alight. He does ignite himself, but is beaten out by Aaron and Raco.
- Stealing from the Till: Scott is doing this on a massive scale by having an educational grant worth $70,000 earmarked for the school redirected into his personal account.
- Straight Gay: Farmer Jamie Sullivan and the local doctor appear to be a typical pair of ocker blokes, but are actually in a secret relationship. Jamie's desire to keep the relationship secret causes him to lie about his whereabouts on the day of the murder, sending Aaron's investigation down a blind alley.
- Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: Mal Deacon, who is going senile, keeps thinking that Aaron Falk is actually his father Eric Falk, who hasn't lived in the town for 20 years.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: The local school principal, Scott Whitlam, is The Gambling Addict who fled Melbourne to a remote country town to escape his creditors. However, the people he owed money to pursued him and he winds up committing embezzlement to pay them off, and then commits murder to hide the embezzlement.
- Two-Timing with the Bestie: Luke, Aaron, Ellie, and Gretchen are all close friends. Luke is dating Ellie while Aaron is dating Gretchen. But Aaron and Ellie are sneaking around behind Luke's back. Not that Luke would notice since he's doing the same to Aaron with Gretchen. This becomes a problem when Ellie is found dead in the river, with everyone else in the group having a possible motive for having killed her.
- Would Hurt a Child: As well as Luke and Karen Hadler, their young son Billy is gunned down during the family massacre, although the killer draws the line at killing their infant daughter Charlotte, because Charlotte is too young to be a witness.
- You Can't Go Home Again: A major theme of the film. Aaron goes back to Kiewarra, the town where he grew up, to attend the funeral of an old friend. He is made to feel he is no longer belongs - as an outsider from the metropolis, as a representative of overarching authority but also as a person with a smear against his name. There is a suspicion that he didn't say all he knew when a local girl was found drowned 20 years before.
