Swerve Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Swerve Blu-ray Movie Review

Head-on out to watch this.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 13, 2014

The brightly sunny and dusty climes of South Australia’s outback would not seem to be a natural setting for a film noir, and yet that’s exactly what Swerve rather brilliantly offers, in a complex and generally extremely satisfying entry that takes several hoary noir tropes—a luscious femme fatale, an honest interloper, a jealous and brutish husband, and untold piles of cold, hard cash—and invests them with a bit of cheeky humor and an almost palpable sense of style. Many iconic noirs like Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice have had triangles—romantic or otherwise—at their core, and the two just mentioned share a salient similarity with Swerve, in that there’s a rather seductive wife angling to get out of an unhappy marriage. Writer-director Craig Lahiff gives the viewer a visual analog of the coming central triangle right off the bat in Swerve, as a breathless, virtuosic six minute opening sequence starts with a car racing down a wide open Australian road which intersects, pitchfork style, with two others. Lahiff then brilliantly intercuts between several simultaneously unfolding stories, each with a suitcase or bag being prominently featured. A drug runner meets with his contact in an isolated desert setting that may remind some of one of Walter and Jessie’s preferred cooking locations in Breaking Bad. The runner is evidently passing off fake drugs, however, and has arranged a little “surprise” for the buyer, which results in the runner making off with a suitcase full of cash for his time and trouble and no surviving witnesses to tell the tale. Meanwhile we are also shown an alternately desperate and giddy housewife getting something out of a home safe, packing her bags, and then hightailing it out of there, making her way down an apparently barren Australian highway in a windblown convertible. Lastly, a weatherworn man attempts to fix a leaky radiator hose on his dilapidated car by opening his bag and ripping up a shirt inside, pushing that into the steam emitting hole. Within moments these three characters literally collide when the runner attempts to pass the guy with the broken down car and almost runs smack dab into the woman, who’s proceeding in the opposite direction. The runner, yes, swerves, resulting in a spectacular crash that leaves him dead (decapitated, actually), the woman slightly injured and obviously very shaken and the guy with the old car trying to figure out what just happened. He ushers the woman back to his car and goes to investigate, finding the runner obviously not feeling so well, but more importantly, also finding the case of cash, which has been ejected from the car. Swerve isn’t quite done setting up its pieces, but this remarkably well done opening sequence certainly sets the bar quite high, and if the film doesn’t quite maintain this level of visceral excitement for the rest of its running time, it often comes amazingly close.

The put upon housewife is named Jina (Emma Booth) and the good Samaritan is Colin (David Lyons). Colin deposits Jina back at her house, her putative escape attempt seemingly foiled, and then drives into the sleepy Australian burg ironically named Neverest, which in one of the film’s subversive moments of humor, has a sign welcoming safe drivers. It takes Colin a while to track down the local constabulary—the police office is actually locked up and closed—but he ultimately meets Frank (Jason Clarke), and gives him the suitcase full of cash. Frank takes Colin back out to the crash scene, where a team has also assembled to investigate what happened, at which point the two guys realize through casual conversation that they’re both Iraqi war vets. That, coupled with the fact that Neverest’s sole hotel is completely booked due to a marching band competition (one of this film’s oddest sidebars), leads Frank to offer Colin a night or two at his place until Colin’s broken down car can be repaired. It of course turns out that Jina is Frank’s wife, and thus a simmering triangle is at least hinted at, if not allowed to fully flower.

Things start to turn a bit darker when Colin notices welts on Jina’s neck, which he initially thinks came from the car accident, but later realizes came from Frank’s aggressively kinky sex play (which Colin more or less witnesses late at night). Jina has in the meantime made it abundantly clear that she’s not especially wedded to the idea of being married, and starts plying her feminine wiles on Colin, who seems reluctant to give in. Meanwhile, two tangential characters show up to cause more mayhem. There’s a mysterious stranger poking his nose around town and the accident site who shows how ruthless he is in one of the film’s more shocking moments, and there’s Jina’s slimy employer, who obviously wants to put the moves on her and who seems to have some inside information on the disappearance of Frank’s erstwhile partner.

The film begins to echo outings like Blood Simple, with various people mistakenly understanding what’s actually going on, and a great deal of carnage resulting. And for about two thirds of Swerve, things proceed at a blistering pace, if an increasingly improbable one. The film finally loses a bit of its momentum as things careen to its hyperbolic final act aboard a speeding train, but before that Swerve has a couple of exceedingly well done suspense scenes, including a riveting sequence in an abandoned mine.

Craig Lahiff invests Swerve with inimitable style, and the film’s great crane, tracking and panning shots give it a sweep and energy that really helps to keep things moving—literally at times. Performances are top notch, with Clarke’s Frank erupting in absolutely disturbing rants of rage, and Booth nicely essaying a woman who may or may not have more in her background than she initially lets on. Lyons’ Colin is an appropriately conflicted nice guy, and his increasing panic as things spiral out of control is almost palpable. Swerve evidently hasn’t raised much dust even in its native Australia, but this is one film that genre lovers should certainly try to collide with as soon as possible.

Swerve Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Swerve is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This digitally shot feature boasts a decently clear picture, though the bulk of scenes shot from within cars tend to look a bit on the soft side. When the camera is stationary and outdoors in the bright sunlight, colors are wonderfully suffused and accurate looking, and clarity and fine detail are quite good (see screenshot 1). There are occasional issues with minor but noticeable noise in some of the darker scenes like the mine sequence mentioned above and also the late scenes set aboard a dusky train. Contrast is generally very strong and black levels are also consistent.

Swerve Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Swerve's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 has bursts of fantastic activity, as in the devastating car crash that sets everything in motion. Both the onscreen music, courtesy of the marching bands that occasionally wander through the town's sole street, or the underscore (by Paul Grabowsky) are effectively positioned through the surrounds. Dialogue and ambient environmental effects are clear and at times nicely directional. There's also some great attention paid to various environments from the wide open spaces of the outback to the claustrophobic confines of the abandoned mine.

Swerve Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Jason Clarke (Frank) (480i; 3:38)


• Interview with Travis MacMahon (Charlie) (480i; 1:43)


• Interview with Robert Mammone (Logan) (480i; 1:30)


• Interview with Sean Lahiff (Editor) (480i; 2:18)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:45)

Swerve Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Swerve opens with a bravura sequence that sets the bar perhaps impossibly high, and if the film never again quite attains the giddy heights of its premiere six or so minutes, it continues to work within traditional noir tropes without ever feeling tired or cliché ridden. Part of this is due to the unusual, almost comical, setting, but most of it can be attributed to Lahiff's generally smart writing and certainly to his completely assured direction. Swerve may frankly never amount to much, but it's something that too many films nowadays resolutely aren't—it's a blast to watch. This Blu-ray is awfully slight on supplements, but its video and audio are generally very good. Highly recommended.