Jack Irish: Black Tide
by Matt Cameron; dir. Jeffrey Walker (ABC, 2012)
New film, same plot. The support characters do more or less what they did in ‘Bad Debts’—as does Jack Irish himself, wandering about like a mildly concussed soccer parent, untangling deadly conspiracies. Guy Pearce straddles the line between world-weary and cardboard.
Jack Irish: Bad Debts
by Andrew Knight; dir. Jeffrey Walker (ABC, 2012)
A telemovie crime drama steeped in the seedier aspects of Australian city life (lent verisimilitude by accents and cultural quirks). Guy Pearce is competent but understated in the lead role. Two of the world’s great Colins—Hay and Friels—play bad guys.
Memento
dir. Christopher Nolan (2000)
Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough film is a masterpiece of independent cinema, challenging viewers to follow a murder mystery backwards from crime to cause. Guy Pearce captures the forlorn determination (and occasional humour) of a man with no short-term memory piecing the clues together.