Review: Australian romance 'Dirt Music' suffers from too many discordant notes, but Kelly Macdonald's performance is perfectly pitched

There are moments when the romantic drama “Dirt Music” captures the spare, stark beauty of its Western Australia locations and the broken, beautiful people who inhabit them. Alas, they are only moments, floating in an ocean of plot contrivances and unrelenting grimness.

Georgie (played by Kelly Macdonald) is an ex-nurse who’s a bit lost in her current life, as unappreciated girlfriend of local crayfish legend Jim Buckridge (David Wenham). Georgie spends days tending to Jim’s two sons, children of Jim’s late wife, or exploring the beach near their home. 

One day, she notices a truck parked on the beach, and a boat out in the water. Both belong to Lu Fox (Garrett Hedlund), whose reputation as the town bad boy precedes him. Lu has the main requirements of a tragic romantic figure: Six-pack abs and a sad backstory. So it doesn’t take long for Georgie and Lu to land in bed together in a Perth hotel.

The sad backstory involves the deaths of Lu’s brother, Darkie (George Mason), Darkie’s wife, Sal (Julia Stone), and the couple’s little girl, Bird (Ava Caryofyllis) — whom Lu imagines he sees wherever he turns. The Fox family used to be a folk band, performing the “dirt music” of the title at the local pub, but Lu doesn’t play any more.

It’s no use describing the plot much further because: a) spoilers; and b) what follows is both predictably cliched and randomly ridiculous — and the predictable parts collide with the random bits in ways that will make a viewer’s eyes roll. Whatever poetry was contained in author Tim Winton’s 2001 novel is lost in the screenplay, by Jack Thorne (“The Aeronauts”), that reduces the pain within this love triangle to a lot of shouting.

And yet, Macdonald’s severe beauty shines through. The Scottish actor (“No Country for Old Men,” “Brave”) channels the heartache and longing Georgie feels, caught between a safe life and the prospect of wild love, into economical gestures and a world-weary smile. Macdonald puts the melody into “Dirt Music,” even when the rest of the film can’t keep the beat.

——

‘Dirt Music’

★★

Available Friday, July 17, for rental on most digital platforms. Not rated, but probably R for sexuality, some violence, and language. Running time: 105 minutes.