September 15, 2004
Picnic at Hanging Rock
In my " let's watch another movie about Australia" kick, I watched Picnic at Hanging Rock last night. On February 14, 1900, a party of schoolgirls set out to picnic at Hanging Rock. 3 of the girls and a teacher went missing and only 1 girl was found, alive but with no memory of what happened. There are conflicting reports as to whether or not the incident really happened or not, but this movie is based on a book of the same name.
I was interested in seeing this movie for 2 reasons: Peter Weir directed it and I like movies that present theories as to what might have happened at an unexplained event.
I was slightly disappointed in the latter case. The movie really just presents the timeline of what happened and doesn't offer any sort of theory or explanation of what happened to the girls or their teacher.
And again, I was subjected to really long shots of the Australian fauna and flora. The only shots of the countryside I enjoyed were the shots of Hanging Rock itself because it looked somewhat sinister and that made it feel like the place was alive and eeeevil.
The editing was a bit disjointed and the dialogue was a bit stilted as well.
Overall, I'd say watch the movie if you've got 1:47 to spare and are interested in unexplainable stories.
