Lake Mungo

This, unfortunately, reminds me of WNUF Halloween Special, in all the ways it shouldn’t. I wanted to like this a lot more, and in one sense I do, but … what holds it back HOLDS IT BACK. The story of the death of Alice Palmer is told as a documentary, and the dedication to the documentary format is astounding in its accuracy. Using B-roll of scenery and soft music to transition from one topic or story thread to another. The use of home movies (complete with appropriate filters to give it that shaky, shot on video, grainy effect) to underscore narration provided by talking head interviews. Splicing together dialogue from separate events together to create false context or manipulative narrative. The mockumentary format is a far more effective vehicle for getting across a story than the found footage format. There’s no argument. And credit to the performances of the actors here, who improvised all dialogue, with only bullet points to guide them. The interviews feel genuine, like real human reactions. But the problem that hurts Lake Mungo is that the story isn’t compelling enough, or big enough, to warrant an hour and a half. Alice accidentally drowns on a family trip to Lake Mungo. Okay. But then her image starts popping up in movies and photos around the house. Is she really dead? No, they exhume the body and it’s her. Is it a ghost? No, the son faked the pictures and video to get the body exhumed and help his mom put it all to rest. Except he keeps doing it after the exhumation, so … oh, wait, you wanted an answer as to why? Nope, we’re moving on. They bring in a psychic prior to the pictures being debunked, and it goes nowhere. This is the first 30-40 minutes or so, and by now, you’re going “okay, now what?” SHE HAD A SECRET LIFE! DUN DUN DUNNNNN! Turns out she (under age) was in a three way with the neighbor and his wife, and it was videotaped, and she had the videotape, and he tried to break in to get it. Where does this story go? Nowhere. It stops. That’s 20 minutes wasted. And we still got 30 minutes to go. How about a premonition of death before she died? Seems she lost some possessions while on a class trip the year before she drowned. Turns out she buried them after seeing a ghost that looks like her future corpse, so she buried her phone, bracket, necklace and watch. Um, okay? And somehow, finding this tells her family something about her? WELL TELL US WHAT THAT IS BECAUSE IT MAKES NO SENSE. This brings closure to the family too. Sure okay. At least it brings closure to the movie. If the movie tied up these loose ends, or at least made them connect somehow (the parents blame the neighbors for Alice’s death … SHE ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED?!?), it might mean something. But the script has too much time on its hands and not enough to do with it. And bouncing back and forth between supernatural or not — legit, it does this three times at least — becomes so tired, you stop caring. There are two movies here fighting against each other: one is a dark, ominous mockumentary about the mysterious death of a teenage girl and the weird things around it, and one is a rumination on the unfillable hole left behind in a family when a child dies. Both of these would make for a fascinating use of this format. Mashing the two together does not, and results in script with feet in two countries but occupying neither.