Animal Kingdom, the debut feature film from director David Michod, is a high quality Australian drama, and one of the best National releases in many years. The film received worldwide acclaim, taking out the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival before winning seven AFI Awards (including Best Picture, Director, Actor and Actress). When I saw Animal Kingdom earlier in the year, I had pretty high expectations for this urban crime thriller. I left feeling reasonably satisfied, but found that it fell below the hype bestowed upon it.

Covering similar ground to many other crime family dramas, many of the characteristics I have come to loathe about urban-setting Australian films came to the fore once again. On the positive side it lacks the Hollywood sugar coating that many dramas are drenched with nowadays and it is a gritty personal portrayal of the downfall of a powerful crime family in Melbourne. The figure at the center of the drama is Josh Cody or ‘J’ (James Frecheville), who had been formerly protected from his undesirable family by his mother. When she dies of a heroin overdose, his grandmother and matriarch of Melbourne’s most powerful crime family, Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody (Jackie Weaver) adopts him into her home, where he is introduced to his volatile uncles.

Janine’s oldest son, Andrew ‘Pope’ Cody (Ben Mendelsohn) is currently in hiding, and her home is consistently surveyed by a troupe of renegade detectives for any sign of him. Pope’s former partner in crime, Baz (Joel Edgerton) is working hard to keep his family’s name clean and searching for a way out of the game. Short-tempered middle brother Craig (Sullivan Stapleton) is deep into drugs, both through his dealing and his excessive using, while the youngest brother Darren (Luke Ford), also a heavy drug user, is reluctant and withdrawn but easily persuaded into following the demands of his older brothers.

Josh finds himself involved as a driver and an assistant to his uncles’ dealings. The circumstances become critical when a car he is asked to steal becomes a key tool in the shooting of two innocent police officers. Set out for revenge following the shooting death of Baz, and to send a message to the law enforcement, these heinous shootings ultimately account for the fall of the family, and the film tracks the events of their panic. With the exception of Craig, who flees the authorities, each of the family members are questioned by Detective Nathan Leckie (Guy Pierce) over their involvement in the shootings. Believing Josh to be clear of any direct involvement, Leckie takes interest in his situation and seeks to relieve him from it.

Josh is kept at the station longer than Pope and Darren, causing unrest and mistrust within the family, who begin to question Josh’s abilities to cover for them. Josh treads a dangerous path, also placing his girlfriend and her family in danger. The final half of the film is relentlessly intense, and much better than the first half, with each character pushed to the limit to survive. While the conclusion isn’t difficult to predict, it remains no less shattering. There were some genuinely shocking moments that left most of the audience stunned, and some nice subtleties in the development of the characters that effortlessly added depth and allowed you to relate or distance yourself from them.

What I did find to be a bit contrived was the grubbiness of the characters; their unkempt and unshaven appearance suited their professional lifestyle but seemed unnecessary characteristics. They are uneducated, heartless, sociopaths and criminals; I didn’t understand why they all had to look homeless too. The only one that looked clean-cut and respectable was Darren and he was questioned about being gay. But the edginess and mistrust between the ensemble was beautifully conveyed.

The performances were all outstanding, especially Ben Mendelsohn (astonishing), Guy Pierce (consistently reliable) and Jackie Weaver (who was chillingly evil, and it was great to see her rewarded with an Oscar nomination). I did find Grandma Smurf to a bit too eccentric, hiding her true evil behind that warm grin. Essentially the troubles of her children stem from her influence and upbringing, but I found her needlessly sexual relationship with her sons to be another contrived method to explain the morality of the characters. James Frecheville’s first feature performance asked a hell of a lot and overall he does a very good job. While his quiet, nervy monotone suited his role as a reluctant informer to his family’s wrongdoings, he was certainly overpowered by his more experienced co-stars. Although the sequences with Guy Pierce were great.

Despite all of these qualities I didn’t feel completely overwhelmed by Animal Kingdom. I generally dislike most Australian releases, which is a great way to support the local industry, but I always find them to be generally dull and visually uninteresting dramas. While this is a much more thoughtful screenplay, I kept being reminded of Underbelly at its best. It’s the heart that drives Animal Kingdom, the complexities of the characters and the impact of their moral decisions on their survival in this gritty underworld.

Having only watched it once nearly nine months ago, I will need to watch again, because I think I will appreciate it more the second time around. But these were my thoughts on my first viewing. Animal Kingdom is now out on DVD, be sure to check it out if you haven’t.

B

(8/10)

Notes: Rated R for violence, drug content and pervasive language, 113 minutes.