All Australian product. A top-shelf director. An A-list Aussie cast. Locations to die for. A plot derived from a novel by one of the country’s beloved authors.

Blueback should work but it doesn’t, thanks to a screenplay of surpassing dullness.

Mia Wasikowska in Blueback. Photo © David Dare Parker

Based on Tim Winton’s all-ages novel, director and screenwriter Robert Connolly’s film opens in the present with marine biologist Abby (played by Mia Wasikowska) swimming over the ocean bed, gliding over acres of bleached coral. Later, back aboard her research vessel, she tells an aquarium of tropical fish: “Your home is dying and I don’t know how to help.”

Message received. But don’t worry if you missed it. Connolly’s screenplay repeats it several times (and others like it) during a film that relates the story of how Abby came to be a passionate guardian of ocean life.

Still aboard the boat, Abby gets a phone call. Her mother, Dora, has had an incapacitating stroke. Abby, who seems rather unmoved by the news, must fly home to Longboat Bay to look after her.

While Dora’s condition stabilises, Abby rediscovers her coastal roots and community, via flashbacks...