The Nightingale (2019)
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The Nightingale Movie Review
The Nightingale is a 2019 Australian period thriller film directed by Jennifer Kent and starring Aisling Franciosi and Sam Claflin. It’s a very good, though brutal film.
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“Get me to the soldiers that came by this morning“
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Clare, a young Irish convict, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness and is bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence the man committed against her family. On the way, she enlists the services of Aboriginal tracker Billy, who is marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Set in 1825 Tasmania which was then a British colony, the movie very much serves as an essential history lesson on the brutality of white people and colonizers of Australia, and how even more brutal they were than their US counterparts. It’s a film that utilizes its setting and time period to the fullest extent with a transporting feel to it.
But yes, the violence is difficult to sit through. I found it somewhat necessary and a powerful reminder and history lesson, but there is no doubt about it – the film is disgusting and simply atrocious in that first act with numerous rapes committed on the female protagonist, her baby and husband being killed off and simply the horrible sadism of the main villain, though memorable, is difficult to watch.
But Sam Claflin plays him not as a cartoony, but a realistic villain which was important as this whole movie is incredibly grounded in reality, and never at all implausible. Yes, that led to a somewhat anti-climactic third act, but even though the clumsiness of the protagonist is annoying, it’s brutally honest and that sets this picture apart from countless others.
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So yes, Claflin of The Hunger Games fame plays the most horrible man you could imagine, and he excels at it surprisingly enough. His henchmen are also very believable and real whereas Billy is such a great Aboriginal character. The film portrays their struggles brutally, but again essentially given that this entire picture could have really happened back in this period.
Aisling Franciosi is terrific as Clare, and easy to root for. She’s one of the most grounded female protagonists in recent memory. Kent easily could have made her badass, but by resisting that temptation, she again showcased what a great talent she is.
I personally found the relationship between these two the best part of the film. Those scenes are wonderful as the two gradually become closer and simply their shared backstory of suffering is heartbreaking. I loved their moving conversations.
The Nightingale is also gorgeously shot and utilizing on its beautiful location superbly. A lot of the forests of Tasmania here are wallpaper-worthy, and simply this exotic, but inhospitable terrain serves as a terrific reminder of how unwelcome these settlers were there.
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The film could be slow paced in the second act admittedly so. It becomes almost like an adventure, but some of those trekking sequences could have been trimmed at least a bit, and again I wanted a bigger emotional closure in the end.
But what I appreciated the most at the end of the day is its very different to categorize nature. It is a revenge thriller most obviously, but it’s also a historical film, and very much a war movie as well. But, it can even be seen as an Australian version of a western which is the most interesting angle to watch the film. Either way, it succeeds solidly at most of them, and it is a fine successor to ‘The Babadook’.
Jennifer Kent got yet another winner in The Nightingale – a movie which is very difficult to categorize. It can be seen as a revenge thriller, a period piece, a war movie and even an Australian version of a western. Either way, it’s a very well acted, incredibly important and painfully realistic history lesson about the brutality of British colonizers of this continent that is immensely difficult to watch, especially in that atrocious first act, but a heartbreaking testament to the injustices committed upon women and Aboriginals during this period.
