The Nightingale

These days whites are pretty much instantly thrown under the bus for merely existing, but with that insanity of the present doesn't negate the horrors of the past caused by numerous individuals that sought to distribute suffering. Australia's past is something few ever really teach or bring up, at the most we tend to simply hear that at one point it was a prisoner colony, a place in which the British placed its undesirable criminal population, far from the nation's main areas of reach where such citizens could no longer cause harm. At a glance it makes sense to simply ship off those who have conducted harsh crimes upon others, effectively holding them on an unknown island somewhere. But that island, of course, was already populated. Leading to a series of additional monstrosities conducted by those who made claim of conducting justice within the space. Of course, none of that actually makes any logical sense, but with power comes greed and with greed and power combined comes the cruelty of mankind. The Nightingale is a horrific, fictional look at life under the early colonisation of Australian land. I emphasise the fictional aspect of the film as to make claim that none of this story holds truth of ever taking place, which I think in this day would very easily be thrown into the hands of the terminally-online and political due to its fragile and somewhat charged narrative.

The Nightingale is a film I had on my watchlist for the longest time, having stumbled across its poster on Netflix a few years ago and finding it somewhat interesting. Though I never did watch this film until now. For some reason, it had appeared back in my mind over the last few days and I figured it was finally time to check it out. Perhaps somewhat influenced by the more recent productions I have been watching that hold similar areas of cinematography, as well as general earthy tones in the visuals. I love this aesthetic, so it's no surprise that the poster I had originally seen of a woman in darker, old clothing holding an old firearm as she ran through the green and brown forest had returned to mind. Curious, I continued to feel. I had never looked the film up beyond this, never had I seen a trailer for it, nor had I ever really read any reviews on the film. And that is rarity for me, to be purely influenced by a single image. One poster I had seen. I wish it was usually this simple!

This review may feature the odd spoiler, likely the primary setup that leads to the eventual events that take place in the film. Though I typically refrain from posting spoilers, keep it in mind from this point on if you haven't seen this film and perhaps may wish to.

The Nightingale sort of dives into its narrative, not really giving much information into what time period this is, and what environment these events take place in. We are effectively thrown into a narrative of sheer gloom as we witness horrific events taking place to a small family somewhere at the hands of some people in some sort of military power, these military men appear to be British, and the women prisoners with an Irish origin. At the same time, there are a few references to "blacks" which we soon come to discover are the Aborigines population that are constantly killed and made prisoner. The reasoning is unknown, though the horrors ramp up in intensity from rape of women to the killing of babies and fathers. And this is where we see our protagonist, an Irish prisoner that has lost everything at the hands of such cruelty, but now with a thirst for intense revenge. That's pretty much the story of The Nightingale, a revenge story with a bit more of a period piece to it. A female-led sort of 'John Wick' story to it that pushes forward into a world of intense evil as someone reaches their breaking point and seeks to take justice into their own hands.

I quite liked the performance by Aisling Franciosi, an actress I haven't heard of before that seems to have a rather small set of productions under her name. She plays off the unknown protagonist style quite well with a highly emotionally charged performance that shows a true hatred and thirst for revenge. Particularly in the moment of her assumably first killing, an act that came with brutality and little thought behind it. A primitive and fast act that only makes you question the lengths she'll continue to go to as the film progresses. But it wasn't her performance that I found a bit lacking, rather the rest of them. It's a beautifully shot film with a rather vintage look to it, shot on a 1.37:1 aspect ratio. Square, blocked in, and rather claustrophobic is its intention. It works well in particularly moments, where the depth works in its favour. But with uncharismatic performances that seem flat and its story a little too long in parts, particularly with repetition. Critics have claimed that the narrative feels as if it speaks like "a history lesson from the hands of a furious teacher", and to this I can completely agree.

This repetition over its themes become a little excessive to the point where it starts to distract. Rather than being a central theme for the plot, it becomes a constant hate. A fury that continues on throughout, though interestingly it starts to show our protagonist in a similar light as those she complains about. The lack of humanity that is met with a lack of humanity. As violence becomes the answer for all. Other performances felt cruel for the sake of cruelty, very little depth to those characters that made them feel authentic as people. Comically evil, to some degree. It made the film feel a bit more rapid in the sense that these elements were quickly thrown to the side, harder to resonate with certain characters through their harsh actions. Of course this is intentional, to create a revenge story in which we have nothing but evil in the faces of those our protagonist now hunts.

From that perspective of a revenge story, I think it works. There's some beautiful crafting to the visuals and how it's shot, but again that anger in the story is all too much. It's certainly politically heated and doesn't do the film justice, almost pulling you out from it and making you forget you are watching a film; I'm sure that this again is intentional, but sometimes the message just gets lost when it's so violently thrown into your face every few minutes, and of course done so in a very harsh, fictional manner. It's hard to say whether this is a film worth watching. One one side it's impressive, on the other side it's just generic political hate bait that doesn't offer anything to the world. And with that runtime, it absolutely won't leave you feeling any good after. The type of film to ruin your mood, ruin your day, and make you feel as riddled with hate as its creator.