The terrible mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996 killed 35 people and created swift change in gun laws. Justin Kurzel’s immersive film Nitram details the life of the man behind that attack, following him through his fractured life, offering no easy answers.
Caleb Landry Jones plays Nitram – his name reversed to stop the spread of the killer’s notoriety – son to a superb Judy Davis and Antony LaPaglia as his parents. They can’t control him: Davis’ matriarch is stern and caustic, LaPaglia more nurturing but ineffective against his son’s tightly wound problems.
The film follows Jones as he struggles to fit in, ostracized, trying to impress and falling short with his peers, he needs help. Drugs are mentioned, but he finds solace in the company of Helen, a well-off heiress played by Essie Davis, with whom he forms a bizarre relationship. The obsession with guns is touched early on (air rifles in this case), but a combination of factors seem to drive Nitram to murderous tragedy, all playing in the swirl of Kurzel’s film. Socioeconomic problems, for one – LaPaglia wants to own a property that is gazumped from under him – while Davis is emotionally distant, unable it seems to accept her son’s issues. A telling, chillingly banal scene demonstrates the ease of buying assault rifles in a gun store, with no license needed.
Jones is frighteningly intense, a powder keg about to go off as he loses people he cares about – often his own fault, as the pressure builds. Thankfully, Kurzel spares us the horror of the shooting, but the buildup is painfully intense and queasily unsettling, knowing what will unfold. An unsettling sound design, as well as the intense performances, make for a skin-crawling atmosphere as Kurzel’s incisive film becomes an anti-gun treatise.
How could someone like Nitram be allowed a military rifle? With events in America seeming to point out the obvious – gun control, banning of weapons – there are still mass killings on a weekly basis. More guns lead to more deaths and with firearm ownership higher in Australia now than in 1996, despite the policing, another event seems inevitable.
It’s a grim watch but grippingly told, with an award-winning turn from Landry Jones and a forceful political agenda. Some events cannot be fully explained: the full motivations of Nitram and his ability to pull the trigger is still barely comprehensible. Yet protective measures, especially in the area of gun control, can be put in place. So why is it not happening? Nitram powerfully asks the question whilst offering an unsettling glimpse of a troubled killer in waiting.
Dir: Justin Kurzel (18, 112 mins)
Nitram is out Fri 1 July
words KEIRON SELF
