The Nightingale

Name: The Nightingale
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Crime
Released: August 2, 2019
Duration: 136 min
Rating: 77
Cast: Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr, Ben McIvor, Charlie Shotwell, Dallas Mugarra

2019

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 68 Ratings

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6.8

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6.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 68 Ratings

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The Nightingale

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: August 2, 2019 | NR

Starring: Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr, Ben McIvor, Charlie Shotwell, Dallas Mugarra, Damon Herriman, Ewen Leslie, Harry Greenwood, Joseph Barrows, Luke Carroll, Magnolia Maymuru, Matthew Sunderland, Michael Sheasby, Nathaniel Dean, Sam Claflin, Sam Smith

Summary: Set during the colonization of Australia in 1825, the film follows Clare (Aisling Franciosi), a 21-year-old Irish convict. Having served her 7-year sentence, she is desperate to be free of her abusive master, Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin) who refuses to release her from his charge. Clare’s husband Aidan (Michael Sheasby) retaliates andSet during the colonization of Australia in 1825, the film follows Clare (Aisling Franciosi), a 21-year-old Irish convict. Having served her 7-year sentence, she is desperate to be free of her abusive master, Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin) who refuses to release her from his charge. Clare’s husband Aidan (Michael Sheasby) retaliates and she becomes the victim of a harrowing crime at the hands of the lieutenant and his cronies. When British authorities fail to deliver justice, Clare decides to pursue Hawkins, who leaves his post suddenly to secure a captaincy up north. Unable to find compatriots for her journey, she is forced to enlist the help of a young Aboriginal tracker Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) who grudgingly takes her through the rugged wilderness to track down Hawkins. The terrain and the prevailing hostilities are frightening, as fighting between the original inhabitants of the land and its colonisers plays out in what is now known as ‘The Black War.’ Clare and Billy are hostile towards each other from the outset, both suffering their own traumas and mutual distrust, but as their journey leads them deeper into the wilderness, they must learn to find empathy for one another, while weighing the true cost of revenge. [IFC Films]… Expand

Director: Jennifer Kent

Genre(s): Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Crime

Rating: NR

Runtime: 136 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Elena Lazic

Dec 29, 2021

In Kent’s beautifully balanced and exquisitely shot film, this is the best you can do for someone without negating their experience or agency. The Nightingale similarly does not ask its audience to identify with, root for, or relate to any of its characters. It only tells us to watch and to listen. Read full review

The Film Stage Leonardo Goi

Sep 12, 2018

It is as compelling and urgent as it is impossible to stomach. Read full review

Andrew Crump

Aug 8, 2019

This is neither a pleasant movie nor a pleasing movie, but it is made with high aesthetic value to offset its unrelenting pitilessness: It’s fastidiously constructed, as one should expect from a director of Kent’s talent, and ferociously acted by her leading trio of Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr and Sam Claflin. Read full review

Inkoo Kang

Aug 1, 2019

On American screens, at least, there is an almost shocking dearth of honest stories about European colonialism, one of the greatest forces to reshape the globe in the last half-millennium, and Kent’s humanist revisions of the rape-revenge and Western genres represents a visionary attempt to rectify this. It may not always be easy to sit through, but we’re nonetheless lucky to witness it. Read full review

Carla Meyer

Aug 7, 2019

Early scenes are unnecessarily horrific, and the final scenes falter from a disconcerting shift in tone. But this still leaves a significant stretch of beautiful acting, thoroughly engaging action and vital history lessons about the brutality on which some supposedly civil societies were built. Read full review

Anthony Lane

Jul 30, 2019

The movie simmers with a longing for revenge, frequently boiling over, and the foe is not just Hawkins but the colonialist order for which he stands: barbarism, thinly disguised as civilization. Many scenes feel punishingly hard to watch. Read full review

David Edelstein

Jul 30, 2019

It’s constructed like a meathead melodrama — though with odd, last-act dissonances that might reflect Kent’s ambivalence. Read full review

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User Reviews

johnfite

Apr 19, 2020

A wonderful movie with truly important themes but a very difficult amount of graphic violence to go through. The violence is embedded in the story and rightly focused on the impact on the victims. It is never gratuitous but necessary to explain the story. Some may have difficulty goingA wonderful movie with truly important themes but a very difficult amount of graphic violence to go through. The violence is embedded in the story and rightly focused on the impact on the victims. It is never gratuitous but necessary to explain the story. Some may have difficulty going through it but the story is worth it if you persevere and such an important message about the power of truth and the moral dilemmas that evil creates. The mixture of Irish and Aboriginal oppression together with the lovely landscape of Tasmania created a magical feel and images as well as ideas that will not leave anytime soon. Highly recommended!… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

Colt4569

Jul 9, 2020

So good. The violence is earned, the plot is earned, if a little slow at times. This and The Babadook are forcing me to keep an eye on this lady.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

Bertaut1

Dec 14, 2019

A superb, albeit harrowing drama about colonial violence, misogyny, and racism

Written and directed by Jennifer Kent, on the surface, The Nightingale is a genre picture - a rape/revenge drama set in a pseudo-western milieu. However, as it progresses, it gradually reveals itself as lessA superb, albeit harrowing drama about colonial violence, misogyny, and racism

Written and directed by Jennifer Kent, on the surface, The Nightingale is a genre picture - a rape/revenge drama set in a pseudo-western milieu. However, as it progresses, it gradually reveals itself as less concerned with hitting genre beats than engaging with issues such as racism, misogyny, the fine line between barbarism and civilisation, and the cathartic potential of violent revenge. Brutally violent (but never gratuitously so), it's not going to pack them in at the multiplex, but this is an important, relevant, and mature study of mans' innate capacity for cruelty.

Van Diemen's Land, 1825. A British penal colony, the island is in the midst of the Black War, with the British army attempting to eradicate the indigenous Palawa population. In an isolated colony, Irish convict Clare Carroll (a star-making turn from Aisling Franciosi) is raped, and her husband, Aidan (Michael Sheasby) and infant child are brutalised by the garrison commander Lt. Hawkins (an odious Sam Claflin) and two of his men. The following day, the trio head out on foot through the treacherous bush, and Clare sets off in pursuit, hiring "Billy" Mangana (an exceptional debut from dancer Baykali Ganambarr), a Palawa tracker who hates whites as much as Clare hates Hawkins.

Having spent over five years researching the frontier wars, Kent made The Nightingale in collaboration with Palawa elders, with the story of Clare and Billy serving as Australia-specific synecdoche for the general oppression and violence of British colonialism. Both Clare and Billy have been deeply wronged by colonialists – her as a convict and woman, him as a Palawa. However, one of Kent's masterstrokes is that neither sees their similarity to the other. When Clare is first told she'll need a Palawa tracker, she responds, "I'm not travelling with a black. I'll end up in someone's pot of dinner". And in literally the next scene, when Clare tries to hire Billy, his response is, "I'm not working for a bloody white woman." It doesn't matter to him that Clare is in Van Diemen's Land against her will – she's part of the white race that has murdered his people and taken his land. At the same time, her view is based on the crudest of colonial stereotypes – that all Aborigines are cannibalistic savages. Indeed, she exerts her authority over him in a not entirely dissimilar manner to how Hawkins exerts his authority over her. Kent uses them to examine her primary theme of whether revenge can lead to peace of mind. Does revenge provide satisfaction, even though it's ultimately futile, or is it a necessary and important part of healing? Most troublingly of all, however, she asks, are there acts which are so abhorrent, inhuman, and evil that revenge is the only possible response. And if so, how does one reconcile the futility of revenge with its necessity?

From an aesthetic point of view, The Nightingale looks exceptional. Kent and cinematographer Radek Ladczuk shot the film in Academy ratio (1.37:1), with the claustrophobic nearly square frame trapping the characters within it. Especially important here are the BCUs of faces, which are the film's roadmap insofar as the violence is never abstract; violence happens to a person, not a depersonalised body, and it has real consequences.

Speaking of which, much has been made of that violence. Audience members walked out during the rape scene at both screenings at the Sydney Film Festival, and North American distributors IFC included a trigger warning. Personally, although I found the scenes disturbing, I didn't think they were as bad as has been made out. In any case, the violence (whether sexual or otherwise) is never gratuitous or immature – Kent is no Quentin Tarantino; violence in her work has stomach-churning consequences, and there is always a point in showing, it's never arbitrary or violence-for-violence's-sake, or titillation's-sake.

In terms of problems, as the Sydney screenings attest, the brutality will be too much for some. This is a dark, brutal, and unrelenting film and it asks a lot of the audience. Additionally, at 136 minutes, I found it just a tad too long, and it does lapse into repetition from time to time – if the middle act had been tightened up a bit, cutting maybe 10 or 15 minutes, it would have played better. The dénouement is also somewhat rote, which is disappointing given the strength of the filmmaking leading us to that point. I wouldn't necessarily say it doesn't work, but it's the only part of the where it feels like a genre piece.

These issues aside, however, this is exceptionally strong filmmaking. With not a hint of sentimentality in its unflinching depiction of the horrors inherent in the subjugation of an entire people, The Nightingale confirms Kent as a major auteur with a distinctive voice and the courage to remain true to her subject-matter, however abhorrent such truth might be.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

amheretojudge

Oct 29, 2019

You know what baffles me the most, it is that it is thoroughly entertaining.

The Nightingale The writer and director Jennifer Kent's period drama is a gut wrenching action film done right. And it is film-sy, no matter how much it may deny. And it is a revenge based action thriller, justYou know what baffles me the most, it is that it is thoroughly entertaining.

The Nightingale

The writer and director Jennifer Kent's period drama is a gut wrenching action film done right. And it is film-sy, no matter how much it may deny. And it is a revenge based action thriller, just polished better. I mean it is no F. Gary Gray's '90s action film and neither some Mel Gibson's buddy cop adventure. Yet, I find hints of both of those personalities present in them. If it has the balance of, say.. Gray's The Negotiator then it also has Gibson's loftiness from the Lethal Weapon franchise. The balance as in we are given glimpses of both the parties. The good and the bad. The good suffers and tries to and does win, the little wins as much as they can. And the bad celebrates without enjoying by perpetually dying and losing in front of their own eyes.

There is crude grammar in the script that it foliates in the face of horror; Kent returns back to her genre every now and then to be honest and truthful to these tragic characters and the tragedy they are a part of. And there is also one of the best friendships created and solidified in this dreadful journey. There is innocence and real persuasion on what or where they are going towards. Not just directions but the company too is what's at a loss here.

And you can see that in both those sides. The bad ones are hunting together out of fear and not compassion while the good ones have suffered too much to trust a single soul to sleep blindly and sing loudly. Reaching out to their art forms is how The Nightingale showcases their destination to salvation. The revenge, the blood, the rituals, the dance, the birds and the madness, that's all spiciness toasted for a gripping narration.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

JLuis_001

Oct 30, 2019

This is the kind of film I hate to say is not for everyone but it really is, because this is a dark, gloomy, violent and quite rough film.

This is not the kind of film you see to feel good and you can argue that maybe it's not a kind of film you would seek to enjoy as an experience but inThis is the kind of film I hate to say is not for everyone but it really is, because this is a dark, gloomy, violent and quite rough film.

This is not the kind of film you see to feel good and you can argue that maybe it's not a kind of film you would seek to enjoy as an experience but in this beautiful art there's everything and obviously you have to know in advance what kind of film you are about to see .

The Nightingale is that kind of drama that predicts revenge, calamities and ruin but at the same time gives a story of tolerance between two very different characters among their disgrace and suffering.

It deserves your attention if you're looking for a dark and challenging cinema.
I admit that its rhythm, length and plot can get a bit overwhelming but this is a film that rewards the viewer, but only rewards if you know what you're looking for.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

JLau

Sep 25, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Irish convict is raped, has her husband and baby killed in front of her so tracks down the culprit, follows him across the country in order to....do absolutely nothing to him.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

KenR

Apr 3, 2020

Another Aussie movie that signals the limited mindset of its writer/director/producer within the first 10mins - it doesn’t get much uglier than this tosh. Some moviemakers appear to simply want to lay claim to making a new ‘gross’ movie, to out-gross the one that went before, that’s not muchAnother Aussie movie that signals the limited mindset of its writer/director/producer within the first 10mins - it doesn’t get much uglier than this tosh. Some moviemakers appear to simply want to lay claim to making a new ‘gross’ movie, to out-gross the one that went before, that’s not much of a claim to fame. Jenifer Kent’s prior claim to fame came in the form of the horror entry “The Babadook “14 The Nightingale is set in early Tasmanian colonial history but its head is deeply lost in cheap horror. While sadly there have always been atrocities involved in settling new lands (the world over) this work tends to come across as the anti-white PC brigade --pushing a cheap ‘them and us’ mentality—solely for the sake of spreading increased hatred. 98% of all whites featured are deliberately shown to be as bad as bad can possibly get – so bad as to be simplistic caricatures, designed to manipulate the audience to want to see them killed in the most horrific manner possible, and of course, they are. The sensationalistic foul language is right out of today and equally overdone as the sordid voyeurism. For the industry to lord over writings such as this, is demeaning to the trade, and won’t bring respect or many ticket sales from general audiences. The only following this picture is likely to garnish will be those who relish schlock horror and repugnant, vulgar brutality. When the bulk of performers are not over-acting it appears it might just work but this is very short-lived. The claustrophobic cinematography (shot to no advantage in small screen format!) seems to perhaps be attempting to hide the over cleared and developed landscape for its time.

Those who ‘think’ about what ‘entertainment’ they are being fed, will see so many ridiculous plot failings and under-developed situations that it’s difficult to see who this nasty mess could benefit, and doesn’t ever warrant a second look. It’s time to move on and help overcome this eternal nurturing of hatred or tell it with a little more balance and intelligent respect for the viewer.… Expand

0 of 6 users found this helpful06

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