Nitram Review

The Port Arthur massacre in 1996 is considered one of Australia’s greatest tragedies. It had a major impact on the nation and it serves as the topic for Justin Kurzel’s fifth film.

Caleb Landry Jones stars as ‘Nitram,’ an intelligentially disabled man who has anti-social behaviour issues. He has a strained relationship with his mother (Judy Davis), and his parents struggle to deal with his behaviour. When the young man starts to offer his services to mow lawns, he ends up befriending Helen (Essie Davis), a wealthy spinster.

Kurzel has a history of looking at dark chapters of Australia’s past. His previous Australian films were about the Snowtown Murders and the Ned Kelly gang. Nitram makes the third part of an unholy Australian trilogy. With Nitram Kurzel made a compelling character piece and his best film since his 2015 adaptation of Macbeth.

Nitram set out to show the man as a rebellious figure who acted like a child. The film started with footage of Nitram as a child getting interviewed after becoming injured by firecrackers and saying he would play with them again. It shows the type of character he was even at a young age because he was irresponsible and willing to do what he wanted.

Early in the film Nitram was setting off fireworks and firecrackers in his backyard and annoying the neighbours because of it. He had little regard for others, like when he was offering to mow one of his neighbours’ lawns and he had an aggressive sales pitch. He couldn’t take a slight against himself and his reactions became more extreme.

There was some dark humour early in the film due to Nitram’s disobedience and inappropriate social interactions. Examples of this were when Nitram’s mother told him to put his trousers in the wash before he could have dinner, and he sits back down only in his underpants, and when Nitram gave firecrackers to kids at a primary school. However, as the film progressed Nitram’s attitude and actions became darker, especially when he became more isolated and acquired wealth which allowed him to enact on his fascination with guns.

Nitram was a story about mental health. Obviously, Nitram was about a man who decides to commit mass murder but the film goes beyond that. The main four characters were isolated in some form. They didn’t have friends. Nitram struggled to make friends with people his own age. He called a group of primary kids his friends and Helen was his mother’s age. As the film progressed he lives alone in a run down house and was dealing with his depression.

Helen lived alone in a big house. The only companions were her dogs and a ginger kitten. She was someone who people took advantage of because of her wealth and kind heart. She finds company with Nitram and lets him into her life. Her relationship with the man does raise questions. As Nitram’s mum asked Helen, was he a son or a boyfriend?

The parents were also isolated. Nitram’s dad (Anthony LaPaglia) loved his son but struggled with his behaviour, and he had to act as a mediator between his son and wife. The father suffered setbacks during the film which took a toll on his mental state. The mother was shown to be a colder, stricter figure and there was a clear sense of resentment to towards her son.

There were two really pointed scenes to highlight the themes of mental health and family dysfunction. The first was when Nitram and his mother went to a doctor’s appointment to get more anti-depressants. His mother stated it made things easier and the doctor asked did it make it easier for her son or her. The doctor also asked how the mother was coping and clearly she wasn’t but she put on a brave face. The other scene involved one of the characters falling into a deep depression and Nitram having an inappropriate response to it. It was a powerful yet difficult scene to watch.

The four main leads were all excellent actors, and they gave terrific performances. Nitram won all the acting prizes at the 2021 AACTA Awards and it was deserved. It was a great showcase for Jones and his talents. The role of Nitram would be one many young actors would love to play, and Jones was able to portray this character with a petulant childlike quality. LaPaglia really impressed in his role. He was unrecognisable due to his beard and a few extra pounds and it felt all too real when his character fell into depression.

Nitram was a controversial film in Australia, especially in Tasmania. The filmmakers were aware of the sensitivity of the subject matter. Nitram was never called by his real name, a decision to avoid giving the real killer any notoriety. It also allowed the filmmakers the opportunity to fictionalise some aspects of the story. Nitram was shown to be a character who needed real help and support, but he was never a sympathetic character. The filmmakers were able to walk the tightrope of making the character believable without glorifying his crimes or making him a one-dimensional monster.

Kurzel’s direction had a sense of cold detachment, making Nitram more chilling. There was a long build-up to the shootings and the shootings were never shown on screen. The scene when Nitram examined and brought his guns in a matter-of-fact way. It was a retail transaction where the gun shop owner bent the rules to sell them to Nitram. Whilst the film was set in 1990s Australia, these scenes could have been translated to current-day America.

Nitram was a mesmerising drama about the lead-up to a grim event without feeling exploitative. An amazing feat considering how impactful the massacre was.