The Australian Blood Simple
Imitation is often the most sincere form of flattery. If it wasn’t, then The Square would seem like a shameless ripoff of the Coen Brothers’ first film Blood Simple. The Square is the sort of neo-noir thriller that borrows heavily from that film with a distinct Australian style all its own.
It’s simple enough. Raymond (David Roberts) and Carla (Claire van der Boom) are in the midst of a grand love affair. The problem is that they both happened to be married to other people. Carla is young and naïve, thinking Raymond is going to leave his wife for her and run away with her. Raymond is noncommittal about it, still in love with his wife but having strong enough feelings for Carla to ponder the notion but without enough sense to know that it isn’t realistic.
But then opportunity knows when he’s given a large enough bribe on the job site he works at from a concrete contractor, hoping to raise enough money to walk away with it. When Carla’s husband Smithy (Anthony Hayes) gets a rather large score from dubious means, they both see the opportunity. They just need the ability to walk away with the money without anyone knowing the wiser and like all good thrillers they set one in motion that winds up blowing up in both their faces.
It’s a competent thriller that hits all the right moments but while watching it the film, and the trailer’s comparison of it to Blood Simple, make the comparison an easy one because Nash Edgerton has taken all of the elements that the Coens developed in that film and adapted it for a film in his country.
Whether or not Edgerton is directly taking elements from that film, and others in the genre, is debatable but The Square is so similar to Blood Simple that it’s almost frightening. And it’s not just in plot, which is awfully familiar, but Edgerton takes a lot of the shots and style of the Coens and gives them a bit of a twist in how he sets it up. There’s enough similarities in the composition and texture of both films to make the comparison inevitable.
The Square is a nice thriller but it’s trying too hard to be Blood Simple and not enough of its own film.
Director: Nash Edgerton
Notable Cast: David Roberts, Claire van der Boom, Joel Edgerton, Anthony Hayes, Peter Phelps, Bill Hunter
Writer(s): Joel Edgerton and Matthew Dabner
