Postcards From Far Away

Like countless other Australian tourists, two couples escape to a world of colour, street vendors and full-moon parties fuelled by temptation and excess. One of them doesn't return home. Wish You Were Here explores the repercussions of such decadence as married couple Alice (Felicity Price, who also co-wrote the film with producer Kieran Darcy-Smith, her husband) and Dave (Joel Edgerton) return to Sydney with Alice's sister Steph (Teresa Palmer), but without her boyfriend Jeremy (Antony Starr).  The premise is simple enough, but a night of drug fuelled partying makes way for a slow-burning narrative wherein infidelity, betrayal, violence and secrets splits the seams of the lives of all involved. 

Just like Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap, Wish You Were Here chronicles the aftermath of a single event without much backstory, the catalyst for progression being the response of the characters both individually and with each other. A swirling nonlinear storyline gives little glimpses into both the past and present, backtracking from that night in Cambodia to the weeks after in Sydney. This means that we barely get to become involved with the characters - Jeremy, for example, is treated with detached contempt simply because he is missing. Because of this, the actions and thoughts of the other characters remain, on the surface, mostly unreasoned for most of the film. The relationship between Alice and Dave becomes increasingly complex and intensified without hope as the film shifts to familial trauma, but again this allows the audience to build what it may from the events in Cambodia. There were moments I was frustrated by the lack of dialogue but as the characters slowly became unconcealed, alongside the narrative, the motives of Darcy-Smith became even clearer. This filmmaking is the kind that I love for its deeply considered actions that, in this case of a psychological drama, make the film even more enjoyable.   

The visually beautiful locations of Sydney and Cambodia are given the honest representations they deserve, without the point of excess. The lurk of danger behind the lushness of these locations, and the concealing of their polar opposites, is evoked in the simple shifts of light and soft, subtle camera work.  Stunning to the eye in the same way the characters have been attracted to these locations in the first place, we are reminded of the anxiety and dread created in these idylls. The beaches of South East Asia and indeed, the naturalism of a suburban waterfront home, are marred with foreboding and a slow-eating decay.
 
Fluid cinematography and well-handled editing dips you in and out of flashbacks that are sometimes sensible, sometimes extravagant. In a lot of ways I was reminded of Martha Marcy May Marlene, which I saw earlier this year - the stifled atmospheres, ambiguous narrative and the hypnosis of psychological drama. Although not as ethereal, Wish You Were Here hits closer to the heart purely due to its relatable characters, which are so obvious in mentality but are often not portrayed to deserving accuracy in film. 
 


Many of the reviews I read on this film were critical of the heavy use of structural manipulation and the awareness of information being withheld from the audience. While this is an unmissable trait of psychological drama I definitely don't think that the ending was ill handled or a let down. If anything, the logicality of the final sequence and the fact that I didn't think about it happening during the entire film highlights Darcy-Smith's impressive ability to bind and submerge the viewer. It is only when his hold is relinquished - at the end - that you resurface and realise the immensity of the film's depth.  
 


The emotional honesty of the characters is what made this film so enjoyable; to see seemingly perfect lives fracture is frequented in storytelling, however maintaining believable reasoning for such emotions is not.  This achieved, Wish You Were Here is genuinely involving and intense.