The Royal Hotel Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Royal Hotel Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown April 3, 2024

The damsel-in-distress thriller has come to a strange crossroads. No longer can a female character simply be rescued. That would make a film too out of touch with the progress women have made in the modern age. But then... a female character also can't handle a dangerous situation without getting battered and bruised a bit, lest the internet cry "Mary Sue"! If only a story could just be a story and not always be accused of harboring an agenda or message. What, oh what, are dramas to do? I certainly don't have the answer, but neither does The Royal Hotel, which pits its girls-in-the-Outback against all manner of vicious sexism and, inevitably, the threat of assault. Bad boys apparently come in three flavors in smalltown Australia -- aging village drunk, abusive village monster, and leering village toady -- and other women seem to offer little to no assistance with the ever-encroaching men who seem all too eager to make a woman squirm. The film's performances are all well and good, but the script is wobbly and unsure of itself, confused as to the difference between a step too far and a step that doesn't extend far enough.

When backpacking American tourists Hanna and Liv (Ozark's Julia Garner and Game of Thrones' Jessica Henwick) run out of money and take last-minute jobs as bartenders at a remote pub called The Royal Hotel, they quickly become aware of how antiquated some of the locals' behavior is and how important it is to keep several of the men at arm's length. The bar's owners, Billy and Carol (Hugo Weaving and Ursula Yovich), seem a bit dismissive, while Hanna, though unsettled, listens to Liv, who attributes it all to being fish out of water in a different culture. But one menacing pub patron, Dolly (Daniel Henshall), continues to set off Hanna's red flags, until his strange and inappropriate innuendos begin to take on a much-too-real aggressive posture. Soon Hanna finds herself struggling to keep an increasingly inebriated Liv safe while finding a way out of town before Dolly and his cronies take things too far. Directed and co-written by Kitty Green (the filmmaker behind 2019's The Assistant, a far superior study of sexism and line-crossing men), The Royal Hotel also stars Herbert Nordrum, James Frecheville, Toby Wallace and Baykali Ganambarr.

A sense of the mundane and a legitimate, believable scenario is The Royal Hotel's greatest asset, although there's a strong argument to be made that Garner -- an inevitable A-lister in the making -- is operating at a higher level than anything or anyone else on screen. Green works to scrape Hollywood out of the film, concentrating on crafting a story that feels and plays real. The problem is the mining town at the center of the plot, which seems to be a magnet for awful people that have never heard of personal boundaries. There's a hint of Straw Dogs pulsing beneath it all, but its terrorized couple were far more isolated from civilization. Between Billy, Carol and other townsfolk, the lack of support available to Hanna and Liv is plausible but oddly manufactured against them; the screenwriters hover over the waters of the script, and you can almost sense them peering down, shifting things into perfect place, and indulging in cliche (while simultaneously putting on the air of rejecting such genre tropes). It's tiring, as is Liv's lack of agency and inability to fend for herself. She's too naive, too quick to shrug off danger, too eager to tip back a bottle and allow whatever happens to happen.

Perhaps if Garner's Hanna were on her own, pushing back against a town all too willing to take advantage of her, the story could have better coalesced with the otherwise excellent performances. Dolly tries his best with her and fails, ultimately retreating to the more accessible Liv, but even then Green doesn't make a firm decision as to whether The Royal Hotel is heading towards being a revenge thriller, a home invasion nail-biter, a sexual assault drama, or a bonds-of-friendship melodrama. In the end, it doesn't arrive at any of those destinations, resorting to a build-up to a rather anticlimactic final scene that's neither earned nor satisfying. Hanna and Liv walking off into the sunset is almost silly. Dolly can drive. Where exactly are they going? How exactly have they escaped? Why do they think they're free from the men of the mining town? Why should we feel anything other than irritation that the film closes without offering any real resolution? And why does Carol and Billy's pub suffer the wrath of Hanna's rage? I've turned The Royal Hotel over and over, and there's not a single good answer to be had. The film is a thriller without thrills, a drama without much drama, and a movie missing a proper third act.

The Royal Hotel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Allied's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation stays true to Green and cinematographer Michael Latham's intentions, although the dark, shadowy photography can be a tad problematic. Colors are warm and lifelike on the whole, with convincing skintones, rich primaries and solid contrast leveling. Black levels hover closer to deep charcoal rather than pure, inky black, and crush occasionally is an issue. Far too many of the film's scenes -- whether in the poorly lit bar, poorly lit streets, or the adequately lit nighttime interiors -- struggle with clarity, simply because so much of the cinematography hinges on natural lighting. Thankfully, other than some delineation shortcomings, detail proves to be quite good. Edges are nicely defined, textures are well-resolved, and there isn't anything in the way of macroblocking or banding to muck up the image (Amazon's stream of the film is a mess in this regard). All told, The Royal Hotel's transfer fares as well as it conceivably could.

The Royal Hotel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Similarly, The Royal Hotel's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track offers subdued sonics that fall perfectly in line with the film's rather unassuming sound design. Dialogue is intelligible throughout, though several scenes rely on more naturally recorded voices that aren't quite as crisp or directionally accurate, prioritizing realism over clarity. Rear speaker activity is subtle but effective too, as is LFE output, which isn't all that aggressive but does lend itself to several more intense scenes.

The Royal Hotel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only extra included on the Blu-ray release of The Royal Hotel is a brief, 6-minute trip behind-the-scenes (in HD) with the cast and crew. It's heavy on film clips and short on production insight, making for a barely-there bonus.

The Royal Hotel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Royal Hotel didn't work for me. Though based on a documentary called Hotel Coolgardie, the film never rises to the level of realism required to make its contrived plot beats register. It evokes eeriness and dread, and its performances are spot on, but it struggles with a third act that never quite delivers. Allied's Blu-ray release of The Royal Hotel is a solid one at least, thanks to a faithful AV presentation. More expansive extras, or better yet, Hotel Coolgardie itself, would have added a lot of value, though.