GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2 
Rated: M
Directed by: Robert Connolly
Produced by: Eric Bana, Robert Connolly, Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea
Based on the novel by: Jane Harper
Screenplay by: Robert Connolly
Starring: Eric Bana, Anna Torv, Deborra-Lee Furness.
‘How one decision, one small mistake, can change everything.’
Robert Connolly returns as director with another adaptation of a Jane Harper novel, Force of Nature.
Instead of the backdrop of The Dry, of drought and fire, Force of Nature is set in a forest with rain and the green of ferns and towering mountain ash, missing persons. And serial killers.
Alice (Anna Torv) is a missing person under suspicious circumstances.
Federal Agent Aaron Falk (Eric Bana) is called from Alice’s phone but the line is bad. Amongst the static and dropping signal all he can hear is, ‘they know.’
Called to the Giralang mountain ranges, a search has begun for Alice after she goes missing from an executive work retreat.
Also on the retreat are four other women including the CEO’s wife (Deborra-Lee Furness), all suspects, the story shown in flashbacks as each character is revealed as the mystery pieces Alice’s last moments so different threads slowly tie together as Aaron races to find Alice – missing 30 hours, exposed in the forest with a storm looming.
As Aaron searches for Alice, he’s forced to face his past as he searches for the missing woman, a person he feels responsible for, an informant he’s pushed too far.
His partner, Agent Cooper (Jacqueline McKenzie) feels no guilt, following the appropriate protocols and procedures. But Aaron knows if you push too hard, that’s when mistakes are made. He also knows what happens when people go missing in the forest.
Filmed in the Dandenong Ranges, the mystery is deepened using the vast forest as a place where people get lost, where serial killers are known to lurk – the forest is a place where you feel like you’re being watched. That you’re not alone.
It doesn’t take much for the paranoia to set in.
Force of Nature is a slow burn mystery with weight; the immersion into the puzzle gripping with the plot turning around blind corners so the audience doesn’t know what will happen next.
But for all the film’s promise, the suspense gets lost with each thread that becomes a dead end so that grip in the first half of the film begins to let go.
Force of Nature is well captured, the quiet, the rain, the mood set with some good reveals but the mystery gets lost in the forest of too many red herrings.
So although there’re good performances here, the story gets spread thin so instead of a big reveal there’s many little revelations that lacked punch.
Overall, a well captured, quality crime mystery that’s worth a watch.
