movie review for the stranger

The Stranger

Sean Harris has always had a fascinating screen presence, one that’s slightly unstable and unsettling. He swallows some lines in a half-whisper and makes great use of a hollow, vacant stare. There’s something haunted about the characters he plays. And he makes great use of that skill set in Thomas M. Wright ’s taut and effective “The Stranger,” which premiered at Cannes back in May and snuck its way onto Netflix last week with almost zero promotion or fanfare. It’s worth seeking out.

Harris plays Henry Teague, a man who the first few scenes set up as the protagonist of this Aussie true story only to then turn the tables. Mild spoilers will follow, so come back later if you know absolutely nothing about one of the largest undercover operations in the history of Australia, but this is a film that settles early into a procedural investigation of a vicious criminal. It turns out that Henry is the main suspect in one of the most notorious missing person cases in the history of Australia, and he’s being pulled through the film into a massive sting operation to finally put him away.

It starts with what Henry thinks is a random encounter with a man on a bus who offers him an opportunity. At first, it seems like Henry is about to get involved in a criminal underworld that could get him in serious trouble. He keeps asserting that he doesn’t “do violence,” but agrees to meet some mysterious people, including one named Mark Frame ( Joel Edgerton ), who is actually an undercover cop. Mark gets closer to Henry even as it’s revealed that everything that’s happening is really a set-up to trap a man who the authorities are convinced has murdered a child. It’s a brilliant operation, one that basically places a criminal into an amoral enterprise, relying on the fact that he will be so comfortable within it that he will say or do something that will incriminate him, especially to the criminal higher-ups who will demand to know everything about his background. (It’s also worth noting that a confession obtained this way is legal in Australia and wouldn’t be in the United States.)

Wright, who also wrote the film based on the book The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe’s Killer , deftly moves back and forth between the growing connection between Henry & Mark and the other aspects of the investigation by Mark’s colleagues, including an effective Jada Alberts as the lead detective. Working with editor Simon Njoo , Wright assembles a film that’s largely straightforward but cut together in a way that makes it more unsettling. There are startling jump cuts and dream sequences that get under your skin, conveying how befriending a child killer could destroy someone from within. Oliver Coates ’ score also works to alter our perception of the crime drama elements, making the whole thing more like a waking nightmare than an episode of “Criminal Minds.”

The craft elements of “The Stranger” are enabled by the character work of Edgerton and Harris, who very purposefully share a mumbling beard aesthetic. These men are supposed to be similar in body language and appearance, not only so Henry will open up to Mark but to make the detective’s journey into the dark side more terrifying. He doesn’t have to become a monster like Mark, but he has to befriend one, and Edgerton expertly conveys the fractures that would create in one’s psyche, making one almost a stranger to himself.

Netflix has an increasingly bad habit of burying projects, notoriously making them hard to find on the home screen even on the day they’re released. “The Stranger” seems to be breaking through as it’s ranked in the top ten over the weekend since its release. It’s nice to see something worthwhile break through the crowd of familiar faces.

On Netflix now.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Joel Edgerton as Mark
• Sean Harris as Henry Teague
• Jada Alberts as Detective Rylett
• Fletcher Humphrys as Detective Ikin
• Mike Foenander as Heavy Man
• Steve Mouzakis as Paul
• Simon Elrahi as Lieutenant
• Alan Dukes as John
• Oliver Coates

Cinematographer

• Sam Chiplin
• Thomas M. Wright

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Stranger’ on Netflix, a Hypnotic Australian True-Crime-Drama Starring Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris

Where to stream:.

• The Stranger (2022)
• joel edgerton

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The Stranger (now on Netflix) is a BOATS ( Based on a True Story ) crime-drama with bleak arthouse sensibilities – two great tastes, as they say, that really grind you down with the combined weight of their depictions of the darkest corners of the human condition. Joel Edgerton is the star you recognize, sharing the bulk of the scenes with Sean Harris, one of those That One Guy character-actor types whose face you know but can’t quite place. Thomas M. Wright directs with an austere tone that keeps us guessing as to what exactly his principal characters are capable of, psychologically or otherwise – and that’s why this unassuming film keeps us so tightly in its grasp.

THE STRANGER : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: At this point, nothing is certain. Some certainty may be attained by the end, but how much hope should we have? The rumbling, growling synths on the score push us toward being cautious with our hope. In voiceover, a man talks about inhaling clean air and exhaling the black. We get a brief glimpse of police conducting a roadside evidence search. Then we see a weathered-looking man with a big scraggly gray beard. He’s Henry Teague (Sean Harris). He’s on an airplane. The man in the adjacent seat, Paul (Steve Mouzakis), strikes up a conversation. By the end of the trip, Paul gets Henry a job with an employer. Whatever that job is, we’re not certain. But it’s the type that pays in cash and requires all involved to speak in coded vaguenesses. Guns or drugs, probably; human trafficking, possibly.

Henry seems fine with that, and is likely familiar with that. Soon, Paul’s out and Mark (Joel Edgerton) is in. Mark is to shadowy illegal “businesses” as mid-level managers are to corporations – a go-between who shuffles himself and his underlings into and out of meetings. Mark presses on Henry to tell him everything about his criminal background. No judgment, the bosses just want to know if there are any signposts for potential trouble. Be honest, Henry. And Henry insists he’s on the level, saying he did a couple years for assault, and has been in and out of jail here and there. Henry says violence is off the table for these vague whatever gigs, because second offenses are where they really get ya.

Mark drops Henry off for the night and speaks into the bug on his body, coding the end of the recording he’s making for the cops. Because Mark is a cop, a deep-cover man hoping to – well, the less you know about the truth and nature of all this, the better the movie is. The guy narrating about breathing at the beginning of the film? That was Mark, getting his young son to relax and fall asleep at night. But it’s for himself as well; this is a harrowing, high-stakes job, and a good night’s sleep is a rare occurrence. It’d weigh heavily on anyone, for sure, but especially so for a father, since the case he’s working ties to the abduction and disappearance of a boy roughly the same age as Mark’s son. Mark goes home, hugs his boy, pops a beer and does a little plop-plop-fizz-fizz but I don’t think there’s a lot of relief to be had from the compound traumas of this experience. Not yet, anyway.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Wright seems to draw from some of the best directors on the fringe of the business today: He borrows some meditative surrealism from Robert Eggers (brief visual and tonal flourishes from The Lighthouse and The Northman ), snatches a static landscape or two (accompanied by a harsh musical score) from Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood , summons the intensity (and child-abduction tragedy plot) of Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners and fiddles with narrative chronology a la Christopher Nolan (nothing Inception crazy, maybe more Insomnia or Dunkirk ).

Performance Worth Watching: Harris is damn terrifying as a man who’s almost certainly a far worse human being than he says he is, but leaves just enough doubt in your mind that you wonder whether he’s truly a far-gone sociopath, or just a petty, pathetic loser.

Memorable Dialogue: “I don’t do violence.” – Anybody believe Henry when he says this?

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The Stranger is a lurking-dread movie in which a long-gestating, patience-testing quest for truth and closure burrows in deep, hypnotizes us a little bit and forces us to carry some of the burden of its intensity. All the better to empathize with a man who sacrifices his psychological well-being in order to do good, for the sake of a suffering family and community. Is it heroism? Of a sort, because it’s morally righteous, but uncovering the sobering, awful deeds of another man is a classic stare-into-the-abyss-and-the-abyss-stares-back situation. Subterfuge of any sort has its price. The reaper always takes its toll.

So the movie is almost repressively somber and far from uplifting. Such is the nature of such true-crime sagas, fictionalized or otherwise. But neither is it a hopeless depiction of a world without love or empathy; the basic, mundane tasks of fatherhood in which Mark partakes carry greater significance in the context of this story. Wright offers visually compelling angles on familiar crime-drama tropes, creating texture with sound,amplifying the paranoia with the buzzing and humming feedback of surveillance gear. Narratively, he’s tantalizingly coy, stingy with character and situational reveals, taffy-pulling the suspense, keeping us tuned to his clarity of purpose even when the details are nebulous. Keeping your cards close to your vest is the strategy of the strong player; bring on Wright’s next film, please.

Will you stream or skip the hypnotic Australian crime-drama #TheStranger on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) October 20, 2022

Our Call: The Stranger offers strong, subtle performances from its leads, and a freshly vital approach to familiar material. STREAM IT, but weak psychological constitutions and short attention spans need not apply.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

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'The Stranger' on Netflix: The True Story That Inspired the Unsettling Thriller

The suspenseful movie is based on the complex real-life scheme to finally snare the perpetrator in a high-profile child abduction case.

• Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards

Joel Edgerton (left) plays an undercover cop and Sean Harris a suspected child killer in gripping Netflix drama The Stranger. 

At the beginning of the dark, enthralling Netflix thriller The Stranger, the words "based on a true story" flash on the screen. By the end of the movie, viewers will likely want to know more about that real-life tale and how closely the film reflects it. 

Read on to find out more, but be warned: Spoilers for The Stranger up ahead. 

Basics of The Stranger 

The Stranger is a 2022 Australian crime thriller written and directed by Thomas M. Wright. English actor Sean Harris stars as Henry Teague, a man suspected of the abduction and murder of a teenage schoolboy. Australian actor Joel Edgerton, also one of the film's producers, plays Mark Frame, an undercover cop tasked with getting the truth out of Teague years after the crime. That happens via an elaborate police sting operation that recruits Teague into a fake drug-running ring, promising a hefty payout and a place for the jobless drifter to belong. 

The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and had a limited Australian release before it began streaming Oct. 19 on Netflix, where it's spent two weeks on the global top 10 list . The film is a spare, perfectly paced psychological thriller that explores the uneasy friendship between Teague and Frame, as well as the formidable burden and cost of keeping one's true identity a secret, as both men do. 

The Stranger was nominated for 11 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards this year , including best film, best direction, best lead actor, best supporting actor, best supporting actress and best cinematography, a much deserved recognition of the movie's lyrical visuals, which build the moody suspense.    

What true story is The Stranger based on? 

The Stranger is a fictionalized account of the massive real-life manhunt for the killer of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe, who was abducted on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in 2003 while on his way to buy Christmas presents for his family at a local shopping mall. He was later murdered. Eight years later, his killer, known pedophile Brett Peter Cowan, was finally arrested and charged.   

The film is based on crime reporter Kate Kyriacou's book The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe's Killer . The book details the covert scheme that ultimately led to a secretly recorded confession by Cowan, an original person of interest in the high-profile case who had earlier denied any involvement in the boy's disappearance. Days after Cowan confessed to killing the child and was charged --  you can watch a remarkable short video clip of the actual arrest here  -- law enforcement finally found the evidence they'd hoped for to push forward a prosecution: Morcombe's remains.  

The Stranger changes the names of those involved in the Morcombe case but sticks close to many details -- both Morcombe and his movie counterpart James Liston are the same age and were abducted from a bus stop under a Queensland overpass, for example, and a real-life undercover agent did befriend Cowan and pull him deeper into the pretend crime ring. But the movie focuses more on the sting operation than on the horrific crime itself. 

Where is Brett Peter Cowan now? 

Cowan, now 53, was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 , with the judge describing his crime as "entirely abhorrent." "You have tragically and pointlessly snuffed out a young life," Justice Roslyn Atkinson of Brisbane's Supreme Court said at the time .  

In 2016, a fellow inmate at the high-security Wolston Correctional Centre in Wacol threw a bucket of boiling water on Cowan , landing him in the hospital with burns over 15% of his body, including his head, chest and legs. In 2018, another fellow prisoner stabbed the pedophile in the neck with a sharpened toothbrush. 

Who was the real Mark Frame? 

Edgerton, who plays the character, told the Sydney Morning Herald he's never met or spoken with the real Frame "because we were investigating the truth, taking that truth and telling a fictionalized version of it, which is about protecting everyone involved."

A real undercover cop known as Paul "Fitzy" Fitzsimmons (likely not his actual name) did develop a friendship with Cowan over the course of the sting and testified against him during his trial. Because the real Frame's identity remains a mystery for safety reasons -- it was suppressed during the trial -- we don't know how the investigation impacted him or whether he has a son like Edgerton's character does in The Stranger. That detail adds emotional urgency to Frame's quest to extract a confession from the likely child killer.   

In The Stranger on Netflix, Joel Edgerton plays Mark Frame, an undercover cop who finds himself getting close to someone who may have committed an unspeakable crime.  

What's the reaction to The Stranger been? 

The film currently sits at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes . But as we've seen with Dahmer , another true-crime offering on Netflix, such grim retellings can renew trauma for victims. Morcombe's parents Denise and Bruce have strongly criticized The Stranger .   

"The movie The Stranger is not supported by the Morcombe family," Denise Morcombe tweeted in July . "Individuals who make money on a heinous crime are parasites … We find the making of the movie morally corrupt and cruel."  

The boy's parents rejected the idea that the movie is fiction. "The actual predator looks exactly like Brett Peter Cowan," Bruce Morcombe told Australia's ABC News . "Of course, it's not a fictitious story. Only an idiot would suggest that."

Daniel Morcombe's parents run the Daniel Morcombe Foundation to educate children about staying safe in physical and online environments. The red T-shirt Daniel wore on that December day he went missing has become a symbol of child safety awareness in Australia. People dress in red for an annual National Day of Action for Child Safety, held on the last Friday in October. The event's called Day for Daniel.

Members of the Sunshine Coast community wear red as a symbol of child safety awareness on this year's Day for Daniel. 

Screen Rant

The stranger review: an effective psychological crime thriller.

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Carry-On Review: Taron Egerton's Uneven Netflix Thriller Gets More Fun As It Dumbs Down

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Netflix has yet another true crime narrative available on its platform, and once again, it is bound to receive criticism for how it depicts a real-life event. The Stranger is a fictional account of the investigation to solve the murder of a 13-year-old boy in Australia. However, this tale strips away the key factual details and follows the attempt to capture the killer through an elaborate sting operation by the police. While the filmmakers chose to leave the child's name out of the film, the young boy’s family decried the making of this film . However, the result presents a very strong case for why original filmmaking should be reprioritized in the industry.

Written and directed by Thomas M. Wright, the Australian crime thriller — based on Kate Kyriacou’s novel The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe’s Killer — follows a group of undercover cops, who, inspired by a Canadian police operation, create an elaborate scheme to trap a kidnapping and murder suspect to retrieve a confession and the possible location of the victim’s body nearly a decade after the abduction. This operation required the suspect to be befriended, something he has long craved.

Related: Joel Edgerton’s 10 Highest-Grossing Movies, According To Box Office Mojo

The thriller is an actor's showcase, centering powerful performances by Joel Edgerton and a surprisingly impactful performance from Sean Harris, an actor best known for playing villains. By avoiding the actual crime and focusing on the investigation years after the initial abduction, Wright is seemingly being merciful by not dragging the family’s ordeal into the mix. This, in turn, props up the police and the suspect as the only characters of interest in this story, thus creating a character-driven narrative paid off by excellent performances. To Wright’s and the actors’ credit, The Stranger succeeds at having the audience enraptured by the performances and the story that unfolds around this friendship.

The film is dark and gloomy, the atmosphere thick with dread and suspense. Sam Chiplin’s cinematography turns the desolate Australian Outback into the perfect battlefield for this psychological war. Oliver Coates’ score amps up the isolation, the distrust, the stakes and, more importantly, the seriousness of the whole operation. Wright’s intent is to keep the audience off balance, sometimes threatening to disorient in the first two acts as the mystery slowly is pulled into focus. There is a brutality to the film that isn’t forced by graphic violence or over-the-top and harsh actions. There is a subtlety to it. However, what is perhaps the crime thriller's most influential — albeit unintentional — part of the film is the sense of unease as the narrative tiptoes around the real-life missing case of a 13-year-old boy.

To be fair to Wright and actor-producer Joel Edgerton, The Stranger is an effective and affecting psychological thriller . Enough is changed from the real story to create some semblance of originality, allowing the audience to sink their teeth into the narrative without feeling like voyeurs to a horrific crime. To many non-Australian viewers, it will be the opening note that states the film is based on a true story that will give it away. Most viewers will probably find the story made up, as such an investigation, and the confessions they yield, are not permissible in criminal courts in the United States and in most regions around the world. Overall, The Stranger is compelling, enthralling, and brilliantly executed.

The core issue that will make or break one’s viewing experience is questioning the desire to tie it to a real case. The approach to solving this case is unique and instrumental to solving the biggest kidnapping case in Australia. However, the tactic itself is reason enough to inspire a crime thriller; the real-life case could have been kept entirely out of it. Out of respect to the family who was so adamantly against this film, perhaps fundamentally changing the crime in question would have allowed this film to flourish without any controversy. At the core, the film has an interesting thing to say about the effects of diving deep undercover to uncover the truth and catch a predator. The tiring, stressful endeavor is painful to watch as the film slowly builds suspense. The investigation and how it was carried out draw audience's attention.

As with the countless reboots and remakes, true crime thrillers don't need to retraumatize victims and their families. Creativity and a touch of originality could spare everyone the grief. The Stranger proves that Wright is a capable director and writer who can create a compelling piece of art that unsettles audiences and draws out effective performances. One wishes his efforts were not anchored by the need to recapture the atmosphere of a real-life traumatic event.

NEXT: Till Review: Danielle Deadwyler Is Excellent In Powerful Biographical Drama

The Stranger began streaming on Netflix October 19. The film is 117 minutes long and is rated TV-MA.

The Stranger

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The Stranger Reviews

The wholly absorbing, irresistible character study of two men who aren’t always who they seem to be, one haunted by the demons of his past choices and the other crippled by guilt and attempting to preserve his identity while hiding in plain sight.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 23, 2023

If you like slow movies with tough, serious themes, based on true events, with sinister and dark characters, go for it.

Full Review | Jul 1, 2023

To call it an impressive and offbeat crime drama is putting it very lightly. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 22, 2022

Wright crafts a hyper-elaborate set-up and delicate drip-feed of information which make spoilers an equal crime, but The Stranger is more of a felt experience than a traditional policier.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2022

An annoying chore. A stronger second half comes some way in making the ordeal worth it if you haven’t already dropped off for a tactical mid-fest snooze.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Dec 14, 2022

The Stranger offers strong, subtle performances from its leads, and a freshly vital approach to familiar material.

Wright artfully directs his film with the kind of precision that’ll keep you hanging on to every shot.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 14, 2022

There is a good film in The Stranger somewhere. But viewers will have to wade through a lot of clunky chronology to find it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 14, 2022

This quiet, sly crime movie is yet another gem from Australia's Blue-Tongue collective.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 5, 2022

Finely tuned unconventional crime drama about a brooding psychopath protagonist.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Nov 18, 2022

Generating an increasingly tense, immersive atmosphere, [director Thomas M] Wright gets some intense performances from his leads in a skilfully minimalist film

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 17, 2022

...dramatic fiction with thematic overlaps to Al-Khatib’s documentary...

Full Review | Nov 11, 2022

It does move to its own unique gritty rhythm. But once you get in step with it, it’s hard to turn away.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 10, 2022

The mystery is always kept to your attention and the police procedural that results is fascinating.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Nov 9, 2022

Writer/director Thomas M. Wright’s true crime suspense thriller is a collection of shattered fragments, from its crosscutting among various story and timelines to the shattered psyches of its protagonists...

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Nov 7, 2022

The film builds up as the story moves forward and revitalizes the undercover cop genre to focus on the perturbed psyche of the policeman in question. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 26, 2022

One of the best things to be said about this is that it's difficult to get too much into why The Stranger works without spoiling the story.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 25, 2022

Taut and effective.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 25, 2022

Sean Harris further cements his reputation as one of the most magnetic screen actors today; sporting a colossal beard and shoulder-length hair, his character here is an endlessly watchable presence and enigma.

Full Review | Oct 25, 2022

Toes the dangerous line of befriending the enemy and transcends the final results of an investigation. It's cryptic, hard, sober, and at times too disperse... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 24, 2022

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The Stranger

Two men who meet on a bus strike up a conversation that turns into friendship. For Henry Teague, worn down by a lifetime of physical labour and crime, this is a dream come true. Two men who meet on a bus strike up a conversation that turns into friendship. For Henry Teague, worn down by a lifetime of physical labour and crime, this is a dream come true. Two men who meet on a bus strike up a conversation that turns into friendship. For Henry Teague, worn down by a lifetime of physical labour and crime, this is a dream come true.

• Thomas M. Wright
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• 168 User reviews
• 63 Critic reviews
• 74 Metascore
• 8 wins & 18 nominations

Top cast 71

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• Trivia Producer Rachel Gardner said in April 2020 that "this is a challenging time for our industry, particularly for crew, but we are gearing up to move straight into production on 'The Unknown Man', which will be shooting in and around Adelaide, as soon as is practicable". 'The Unknown Man' was the working title of this film.
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User reviews 168

A sean harris performance you won't forget [+65%].

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• Oct 18, 2022
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• October 19, 2022 (United States)
• Anonymous Content
• Official Netflix
• The Unknown Man
• Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
• Blue-Tongue Films
• Rocket Science
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Runtime 1 hour 57 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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‘The Stranger’ Review: Somewhere Over the Freeway

In this tense thriller on Hulu, Maika Monroe plays Clare, a Kansas transplant in Los Angeles who parallels Dorothy in Oz.

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By Natalia Winkelman

“The Stranger” is a tense if tidy thriller that chronicles a ride-hail driver’s journey to surveillance hell and back. Her survival against all odds mirrors that of the movie itself: The film’s footage originally premiered in 13 short-form episodes in 2020 on the streaming service Quibi, several months before it shut down .

The recut version (on Hulu) bears little trace of its earlier form, although its life span across algorithm-driven streaming companies does cast the villain’s tech preoccupations — “whoever figures out the mathematical formula determining the losers and the winners in life will rule” the world, he declares — in a new, meta light.

Written and directed by Veena Sud (“The Killing”), the film follows Clare (Maika Monroe), a recent transplant to Los Angeles who falls into a freeway nightmare after her ride-hail passenger, Carl (Dane DeHaan), identifies himself as a serial killer. He claims he will murder her unless she tells him a good story.

If this opening sounds cliché, the film at least seems aware of the pitfalls. Sud creates parallels between Clare in Hollywood and Dorothy in Oz, assigning Clare a Kansan back story, a yapping terrier and a guileless attitude. And DeHaan embodies the tech-savvy Carl as a pasty, smirking male chauvinist who is sillier than he is scary.

It follows as something of a surprise, when, over the course of the second act, the film builds to a deeply agitated mood. Sud pulls off the tonal shift by keeping Carl largely offscreen; his looming absence, alongside Monroe’s knack for portraying paranoia, simmers with menace.

The Stranger Not Rated. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Hulu.

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‘The Stranger’ Review: Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris Face Darkness in Grim Crime Drama

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When having a nightmare, there is often a moment when you are suddenly jarred out of a fitful slumber. In writer-director Thomas M. Wright ’s The Stranger , a dark drama loosely based on a true story that patiently yet painfully defies convention, we are firmly planted in this moment of terrifying disorientation. Sometimes it takes the form of a literal cut that closely mimics the experience of a nightmare ending. At others, it is a general sense of dread that threatens to consume the characters navigating a world of darkness. It is a work that initially withholds much of its full wickedness before revealing itself to us in macabre yet mesmerizing fashion.

First premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival , The Stranger centers on the duo of Mark ( Joel Edgerton ) and Henry ( Sean Harris ) who have just met. They appear to be complete strangers and begin to get involved with potentially illicit dealings. It starts when Mark picks up Henry, who had expected to meet with a different man whom he had just met earlier on a bus. They go on tense, largely silent drives where they meet with men in dingy parking lots or hotels that are oddly devoid of almost any other guests besides them. Soon, a cautious Henry begins to trust Mark and opens up to him. It would be hard to call it a friendship, but it feels like the closest that both have had to one in some time. However, as is revealed to us early on, Mark is actually not here to make friends and is not who he is pretending to be. He is actually an undercover cop who is attempting to get information out of the seemingly unsuspecting Henry who is believed to be behind an unsolved murder that happened many years ago.

This is a premise that may sound like it has all the makings of a crime thriller and, in many ways, the literal progression of the plot could easily fall under this banner. What ensures the film finds its way into other thematic and narrative ground comes from its presentation. There is the driving force of trying to piece together the details of the killing and achieve some sense of justice that still remains elusive. With that being said, there is an overbearing and ominous darkness to every interaction. There is no thrill to the chase or joy to the hunt as one may have seen in other stories of undercover investigations. All of that has been whittled away by a weariness that acts like an infection as it takes hold of the entire experience. In particular, Edgerton is outstanding yet understated as he captures the enveloping and overwhelming fear that dominates his character’s life. It comes out in bursts of anger or sadness that he can’t allow to sneak out when undercover. We see the toll this takes on Mark that threatens to tear him apart. There is no glamorizing of this work. There is only a devastating grimness.

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While Edgerton helps to bring this all to life, the film would be nowhere near as affecting without Harris alongside him. He disappears completely into a character who is initially reserved though no less haunting. The more Henry begins to open up, the more we begin to see all the more disturbing aspects of him come out into the open. In many ways, his journey serves as a mirror to Mark who we had first believed to be a confident and hardened man who feared nothing. It is only looking back that you realize, from the moment he first picked up Henry, he was playing the part he needed to. He did so both for his own survival and for the sake of the investigation. It is hard to know exactly how much time has passed though it is clearly more than enough for Mark to begin to grow fearful of being found out by Henry.

The petrifying anxiety over his mission pushes him to toe an ethical line in a manner that is never showy yet still deeply disquieting. There is even a moment where, faced with the choice of whether to help someone who had gotten seriously injured or potentially blow his cover by calling for help, Mark flees from a scene he partially caused. It is a fleeting moment, but a revealing one of many that push the story into unexpected places. There is no lasting catharsis or celebration to the process of discovery as everything just keeps getting more crushing in its exploration of these two characters. The compelling yet terrifying truth it is facing down is that there may not be any hope of either coming out fully unscathed.

What proves to be less compelling is when the film pulls back from Mark and Henry to establish some of the details of the investigation surrounding them. This takes the form of glimpses of the other officers and suits planning out the operation. Some of this provides an intriguing juxtaposition where the bureaucracy crashes up against the brutality underlying everything. Where it starts to get a little lost in itself is when timelines converge in a way that feels unnecessary in how it spells out what could have already been inferred. The film seeks to play this as being a big reveal even as we had already been well aware of everything we needed to do without this. It only serves to create an odd narrative junction that severs us out of the unsettling undercurrent the film had been swimming in. The film does dive back in without creating too much of a splash, but there are a couple of scenes that just stick out like a sore thumb. It makes the film less streamlined and, more notably, less sinister when it counts.

What sucks us back into the nuanced nightmare is the way everything else in the film is precisely constructed. In particular, the use of sound is what gets under your skin. There is a striking score of simple yet effective stringed instruments by Oliver Coates , who recently did great work on both Significant Other and Aftersun from this year, though it also goes beyond that in creating a distinct soundscape. From a persistent fluttering sound to a ringing in moments of tension, the film finds fear in even the most basic of conversations. The manner in which these interjections can drown out the dialogue becomes suffocating. Often we get taken out of the normal sound to hear the muffled recording that is capturing all of the conversations. At one moment, when a device fails, the recording takes on a deeper and near demonic tone for just a few words. There is a delicate dance that the film takes part in that approaches being horror before pulling us back from the edge. What makes The Stranger work is how this all creates an experience that feels as though the two men have become almost doomed to a life where they will aimlessly wander in what feels like an Australian purgatory. Whether they ever manage to escape and uncover some sort of closure is irrelevant to the growing rot that threatens to consume their souls no matter what they do.

The Stranger is now streaming on Netflix.

• Movie Reviews
• The Stranger
• Joel Edgerton