Jasper Jones is a riveting and moving Australian coming-of-age story revolving around 13-year-old book-lover Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller) and the town’s mixed race outcast Jasper Jones (Aaron McGrath). Entrusted with the secret that a young girl from the town is dead, and believing Jasper to be innocent, Charlie embarks on a dangerous journey to find the killer, keeping the secret from his crush Eliza (Angourie Rice) who happens to be the victim’s sister.
Based on the 2009 coming-of-age novel by Craig Silvey (who also co-wrote the screenplay), the film is set in the fictional town of Corrigan, Western Australia, in 1965. But Charlie’s seemingly idyllic, laid-back life is splitting quietly at the seams as he confronts the local racists, struggles through the tension between his mild-mannered father (Dan Wyllie) and unhappy mother (Toni Collette) and ultimately discovers what it means to be truly courageous.
It’s To Kill A Mockingbird meets Stand By Me with a dash of The Daughter, with the local Boo Radley (Hugo Weaving) a war-weary recluse named Mad Jack Lionel, who is dragged into Charlie’s life when Jasper insists he’s the killer. But the real highlight is Levi Miller, who shot to national attention when starred in the 2015 action flick Pan alongside Hugh Jackman and Red Dog: True Blue in 2016. This is unquestionably his best work to date, as he steals each of his scenes with his quiet confidence and a maturity that seems beyond his years.
Jasper Jones is director Rachel Perkins’ first feature film since Bran Nue Dae (2009) and she expertly and deftly coaxes emotive, beautiful and natural performances out of the cohort of talented young actors that populate the film’s landscape. Rice especially carries the heavier material of the latter part of the film particularly well, perhaps thanks to her stunning silver screen debut in The Nice Guys alongside Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. Son of Vietnamese immigrants Jeffrey Lu (newcomer Kevin Long) makes a tremendous splash as the comedic relief to Charlie’s seriousness and reservation.
The rich, wide-screen cinematography that catches the beauty and the vastness of the Australian landscape is a delight to behold, and the score is persuasive and haunting enough to endure even after the credits roll. Colette is her usual stunning, outrageous and scene-stealing self, and is the perfect antidote to the quiet presence of her onscreen husband Wyllie, who Aussie television fans will recognise as the happy-go-lucky father from Puberty Blues.
With a uniformly great cast, beautiful scenery and a patient, minimalist script, there’s absolutely nothing not to love about this gem of a film that’s set to become a modern Aussie classic.
Jasper Jones opens nationally on March 2nd. Click here to watch the trailer.
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