Deep Water Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Deep Water Blu-ray Movie Review

Open Season

Reviewed by Michael Reuben February 28, 2017

The seaside town of Bondi is an Australian paradise famous for its pristine sands, inviting waves and easygoing beach culture. But Bondi has a dark history that is only now being dragged into the light, courtesy of government investigations and journalistic exposés. In the 1980s, the idyllic resort was home to packs of gay-bashing teenagers, who robbed, beat and frequently killed their victims, dumping bodies over cliffs into the ocean below. An indifferent police force too often looked the other way, writing off suspicious deaths as accidents or suicides and listing murder victims as "missing" if no body was found. At least thirty homicides remain unsolved today, as relatives and survivors continue to press for renewed investigation. Cases have made headlines around the world, including in the U.S.

Deep Water is an Australian miniseries set in the present day, as a serial killer targeting gay men provokes conflict within the local constabulary between some who insist on a reckoning with the past and others who would prefer that it stay buried. First broadcast in October 2016 on SBS, the Australian public television station, the series uses the familiar format of a police procedural to draw viewers into a sinister world where lives are tossed away for sport and families of the dead are left to grieve without explanation or recourse. SBS accompanied Deep Water with a feature-length documentary, Deep Water—The Real Story, offering a detailed account of Bondi's secret history as a haven for homophobic violence. Although the documentary has not been included with Acorn Media's Blu-ray release, the miniseries itself is a powerful indictment.

The central figure in Deep Water is Detective Constable Tori Lustigman (Yael Stone, best known here as Lorna Morella on Orange Is the New Black). A Bondi native, Tori has newly returned from an inland posting after a divorce, accompanied by her teenage son, Will (Otis Pavlovic). As Will settles into his new home, which comes with the benefit of surf instruction from his taciturn grandfather, Don (Geoff Morrell), Tori attempts to find her footing in the local police station commanded by Chief Inspector Peel (William McInnes). Her new partner is a Bondi veteran, Detective Nick Manning (Noah Taylor, familiar from both blockbusters like Edge of Tomorrow and prestige fare like the recent remake of And Then There Were None). One of the challenges for Tori is that everyone on the force knows her by name, due to her association with a famous case of yesteryear.

Tori and her partner are soon called to a gruesome crime scene, when the bloody remains of a young gay man are found in his apartment, the victim of an attack bearing indicia of a hate crime. For Tori, the case instantly becomes more than an investigation. Aspects of the murder recall the death of a gay man in the Eighties to which she has a deeply personal connection and which she has always believed was wrongly classified as an accident. Tori's insistence on seeing parallels between the latest crime and unsolved incidents of gay-bashing from twenty-five years ago almost immediately generates friction and conflict within the department, especially with her commanding officer, Chief Inspector Peel, who doesn't want to hear a word about reopening closed cases.

As the killer claims more victims, Tori and Nick discover that he is luring his victims through a hookup app called THRUSTR. Despite the 21st Century technology, Tori remains convinced of the THRUSTR killer's link to unsolved Eighties killings, and she begins tracking down and interviewing survivors, family members and other potential witnesses, heedless of any risk to her career or safety. The deeper Tori digs, the more she find herself questioning whether her chief's resistance is more than just bureaucratic inertia. In the Eighties, when Peel was himself a detective constable, he detained a pair of suspected gay bashers, whom he then released without charge. One of those suspects, Chris Toohey (Ben Oxenbould), went on to become a football hero and local legend; the other, Kyle "Hammers" Hampton (Craig McLachlan), owns a local biker bar that is suspected of being a haven for drug trafficking. The connection between these two former associates, whose paths diverged so radically since their teenage years, becomes a point of sustained interest for Tori—and extreme discomfort for her boss.

As Tori alternates between tracking the THRUSTR killer and digging up the past, Yael Stone draws a compelling portrait of a cop who is both investigator and victim, one who shares a special connection with the survivors she interviews because, like them, she has spent years desperately searching for elusive answers. The urgency of her craving for closure—both for herself and for others—endows the diminutive cop with a fierce intensity that makes her intimidating out of all proportion to her small stature.

Tori's coiled ferocity is offset by her partner's weary cynicism. Noah Taylor's Nick is a study in thoughtful reserve, as the dogged veteran quietly follows his partner's efforts while keeping his own counsel. Nick's stoic demeanor suggests a policing career filled with compromises between getting along in the department and doing the right thing. As his new partner's heedless enthusiasm slowly edges Nick out of his comfort zone, you can sense his observant calculation of just how far he wants to follow Tori into professionally treacherous territory. It's a classic collision of opposites that the partners have to learn how to navigate, even as they try to watch each other's backs (a tricky proposition when an arrest goes horribly wrong).

Director Shawn Seet takes every opportunity to contrast Bondi's serene vistas and laid-back inhabitants with the dark underbelly that the THRUSTR killer has exposed anew. Parts of the concluding episode play out against the background of the annual Sydney Mardi Gras, one of the world's largest LGBT pride festivals, where the colorful celebrations of song, dance and surf prove to be an ideal hunting ground for a killer with a very different agenda.

Deep Water Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Deep Water was shot digitally (on the Arri Alexa, according to IMDb) by cinematographer Bruce Young. Young and director Shawn Seet took full advantage of Bondi's spectacular seashore and overhanging cliffs to provide gorgeous imagery that contrasts sharply with Deep Water's often grim subject matter. The image on Acorn Media's two 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays is exceptionally sharp and detailed, with a marine-toned palette by day, solid blacks at night and a complete absence of noise, interference or other artifacts. The cases under investigation may be murky, but the surroundings are crystal clear. Acorn has mastered Deep Water at an average bitrate of just under 23 Mbps, with a capable encode.

Deep Water Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Deep Water arrives with a stereo soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. When played through a good surround decoder, the mix provides an enveloping sense of environment, whether of sand and surf, the quiet hum of police headquarters or the cacophony of busy nightlife. The dialogue is clearly rendered, and there are optional subtitles for viewers challenged by Australian pronunciations. The low-key but effective thriller score was supplied by Anthony Partos (Animal Kingdom, 99 Homes and Jack Irish).

Deep Water Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Except for the introductory trailers, all of the extras are located on disc 2. They are brief and promotional in nature:

• About Bondi (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:54): Producer Amanda Dear and Darren Dale, production designer Felicity Abbott and actors Yael Stone ("Tori") and Noah Taylor ("Nick") discuss the series' portrayal of the beach community.



• About Shawn Seet (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:42): A look at the series' director.



• About Nick (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:04): Noah Taylor and others provide an overview of the series' secondary lead.



• About Tori (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:17): Yael Stone and others reflect on Deep Water's turbulent protagonist.



• Photo Gallery (1080p; various; 1:18): A slideshow of publicity stills.



• Introductory Trailers: At startup, disc 1 plays trailers for Acorn TV, Janet King and Winter.

Deep Water Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Like the best popular entertainment, Deep Water uses classic genre conventions to explore serious themes, in this case: tolerance, justice and the extended harm that a single crime can inflict—on the victim, on relatives and friends and also on institutions of law enforcement if they fail to discharge their obligation to protect every citizen equally. Tori Lustigman is a unique and original creation, and if the creators of Deep Water can dream up another investigation to engage the detective's passionate devotion, her return would be welcome. Highly recommended.