“The Stranger”, an ultra-black Australian thriller to discover on Netflix, can count on an agonizing staging and its two actors Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris to tell the complex investigation of a terrible news item.
The Stranger“little thriller” and great sensation
Presented in the Un certain regard section at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, The Stranger is an Australian crime thriller, which can be categorized as true crime that Netflix loves so much. Directed by Thomas M. Wright, this is his second feature film after the biographical drama Acute Misfortunereleased in Australia in 2019. The Stranger has for him two actors at the top of their game : Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris. The two men have also recently shared the poster of The Green Knight. They are thus found in The Stranger for a torturous and dangerous psychological confrontation.
In The Stranger, Joel Edgerton portrays Mark Frame, an undercover cop. His mission ? Gaining Henry Teague’s Trust aka Pete Morley. This is a suspected felon kidnapping and murder of a teenager eight years ago. To solve this cold boxAustralian police are implementing a fake criminal organization for the sole purpose of gaining Henry’s trust and making him confess his crime, with supporting evidence. Mark, father of a young boy and forced to get as close as possible to Henry, will suffer from the psychological burden of his mission: offer him his friendship and win his trust.
An ultra-noir thriller inspired by a true story
The staging of The Stranger is arid, in gray and dark hues with a camera that is often shouldered and always at eye level. A feeling of suffocation as much as concern quickly seizes the viewer. By bus, in cars, on a plane, Henry is like locked in the frame. And he must not escape, in which case the murder that the police want to solve will never be. It should be noted, in addition to an achievement that makes the most of its economy of means, a major performance by Sean Harris.
As usual, in this format true crimeit is indeed the antagonist and bad guy which has wide leeway to embody criminal madness. With few words, of a chilling presence despite his apparent absence from the world around him, the actor famous for his role as Solomon Lane in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Mission Impossible: Fallout is absolutely stunning. Facing him, Joel Edgerton delivers him the complex and painful psychological portrait of a police officer engaged in such manipulation. And when neither he nor Joel Edgerton are like The Strangerit’s to explore the tension on the side of the authorities, where Detective Kate Rylett (Jada Alberts) is overseeing this important investigation.
The Strangeravailable on Netflix from October 19, 2022, is based on a true story. It is indeed based on the book The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe’s Killer. This tells the story of the investigation into the disappearance and murder of the young Daniel Morcombe, one of the most resounding news stories in contemporary Australian history.
