Gone (2007)

Gone is the debut feature of director Ringan Ledwidge (and only movie feature to date). Set in Australia Ledwidge is keen to show that life in Australia is neither backwards nor dowdy as it is often portrayed in Australian cinema, in fact rather like the Australian soap operas this looks more like paradise, but paradise is lost in this cutting edge thriller.

Shot in 2007 the movie surrounds the character of Alex (Shaun Evans – The Take, Dread) whom has left his native Liverpool heading for a sunshine holiday in Australia. Intimidated by the scale of his starting location he quickly links up with American traveler Taylor (Scott Mechlowicz) whom needs help with  a double date situation. The two strike up a friendship built on the foundations of a couple of secrets. Alex sees something dark in Taylor and keeps secret his relationship with Sophie (Amelia Warner) his long time girlfriend who headed to Australia ahead of Alex. His fears are proven when Taylor discovers about the relationship and invites himself on their holiday of a lifetime. A series of strange situations, and a sinister fascination with Polaroid photographs should have served as a warning to Alex, but sometimes gut instinct is never quite enough.

Gone is a very sunny thriller, and a contradiction in itself because despite the ever present sun this is a very dark gloomy movie that has an atmosphere you can literally feel. It’s a fairly nasty offering, filled with some great suspense, but sadly a lot of unanswered questions. And this is the lasting feeling that you have long after the final credits have rolled, that feeling that something is missing. And this is the movies big failure, from the minute you clap eyes on Taylor you know he’s a wrong one, and Alex senses this too, and despite what happens during the movie your none the wiser of Taylors past by the end of the movie, and the potential victims he has left in his path on various continents.

Taylor’s Polaroid collection gives some clues as to his past; it’s a strange fixation that he has to photograph every woman he encounters. One of the first photographs taken in the movie is of Alex and a girl they go on the double date with. He also later photographs Sophie and Alex when Taylor first encounters her. But even with the potential evidence you get no certainty about Taylors past. An encounter with a rather large Newcastle girl citing Taylor in Thailand leads to more questions. Maybe it’s a deliberate plan of Ledwidge to leave this information out, to allow you the viewer to piece together the events of what has happened before, but this is the movies failure; and despite all the other positive aspects of the movie its this fact that lets the movie down.

What I will give the movie is the feeling of dread, its so dark, as dark as a Saw movie, it literally exudes unpleasantness. There are some really troubling moments towards the end when one of the main characters makes a sudden but slow downhill path towards death, and its got such realism to it that you could almost believe that your watching real life unfold before your very eyes.

The cast perform really well Shaun Evans is great as Alex, while he is the movies hero he is also a little on the unpleasant side something that as an actor Evans does so well. I was unfamiliar with Evans until seeing Martina Cole’s The Take earlier this year, now it seems the actor is following me in that he turns up so regularly in movies I see.  But its Amelia Warner who really steals the show as Alex’s Girlfriend, firstly being a timid girl with an appetite for partying, you see her develop as both an actress and a character as the movie progresses, at first you can take her or leave her, by the end you just want more; this is a great performer.

Gone is an impressive low budget Australian movie, its got some real depth to it in so many ways. There are some incredibly moving and disturbing moments especially as the movie moves into its final phase. But despite all its promise, as I keep saying it really misses something, and that’s the gathering of all the elements, for the lack of connection you get by the movies end it comes off rather like the ultimate hollow gift, and its on this side that I believe the movie is not better known.