DRAMA; 1hr 29min
STARRING: Felicity Price, Joel Edgerton, Teresa Palmer, Antony Starr
Here today… : from left, Price, Edgerton, Starr and Palmer
If you haven’t travelled to Southeast Asia, the buzzy opening credits to the compulsive Wish You Were Here will have you longing to go. But beware. The unknown is a risk and the disappearance of Sydneysider Jeremy (Starr) while carousing with three mates in Cambodia in 2010 triggers a landslide of repercussions. The three — Jeremy’s girlfriend, Steph (Palmer), Steph’s sister Alice (Price) and Alice’s husband, Dave (Edgerton) — return to Sydney severely messed up as they grapple with the aftermath of a party-hearty night.
First-time feature director Kieran Darcy-Smith’s screenplay, co-written with his actress wife, Felicity Price, moves between a hectic Then and an unravelling Now in a naturalistic segue that evolves into an enigmatic, cause-effect mosaic. Where Jeremy might be becomes less important than why he went missing, and wherever he is, the scars carved by his absence are severe. This is one tough call with its questions of loyalty, morality and the cruelty of hard truths. It pulls you in with a steady grip and holds you with heady performances as mystery and tragedy deepen and entwine.
