Nitram: Acclaimed Fact-Based Drama on Australian Tragedy Soars on Riveting Performances

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A

Caleb Landry Jones won the best actor award at Cannes last year for his lead performance in the gripping Australian psychological drama Nitram. And it’s well-deserved. The film also swept the Australian movie awards last year, winning best film, direction, screenplay, lead actress, actor, and supporting actress, as well as best editing.

Based on a true story, Nitram tells the story of 28-year-old Martin Bryant who, in 1996, went on a shooting rampage in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others. It was the worst mass shooting in Australian history.

Nitram — which is Martin spelled backwards — is played by Jones, who lives with his parents (Judy Davis and Anthony LaPaglia). It’s clear he has some kind of intellectual disability. He can’t get a job or get a social life going. Still, the family maintains a normal life.

Nitram has connected relationships with both of them. His mother is sharper and more demanding, seemingly hoping she can help focus her son to some degree of a normal life. He and his father, who at times seems a bit lost himself, have an often-affectionate relationship.

Nitram tries, but his social instincts are off. Then he meets Helen (Essie Davis), a reclusive, slightly oddball heiress. Helen lives in a big old house that’s falling into disrepair with a menagerie of dogs and cats. Helen gives Nitram a connection beyond his family.

Through Helen, Nitram gets a taste of what an independent life is like, where his quirks are mostly accepted. But then, a couple of tragedies change all of this for him, and he’s left to alone trying to process everything.

The movie is directed by Justin Kurzel, from a superb script by Shaun Grant, who was haunted by the incident for more than a decade and did extensive research.

The true story is horrible, but the filmmakers weren’t motivated by exploring the horror of the actual mass shooting and haven’t made a sensational or violent film. In fact, they’ve done the opposite, to great effect. Kurzel kept the tone natural and focused on character.

The film quite deliberately does not show the violence, the murders, the shooting spree. By taking this tact they grapple with a couple of questions quite effectively, challenging very liberal gun laws.

Nitram wonders about the roots of violence and how society — and in particular gun laws —enable it. The murderer’s obsession with guns was fed and enabled by a culture willing to sell high-powered combat weapons to anyone with the cash, both legally and on the black market.

A scene where Nitram goes into a gun store and is shown a range of heavy-duty weapons and is then schooled on how to use them by an amiable staffer is incredibly chilling.

Just before the credits roll, the film tells us that less than two weeks after the mass shootings, the Australian government passed strict gun laws and initiated a buy-back program to encourage people to get their guns off the streets. But decades later, there are more guns in private hands in Australia than there were almost three decades ago when the law was passed.

The question of gun laws is the deep social challenge of the movie. But for the most part, the film is a character study. Kurzel doesn’t give easy answers. And this is where Jones’ performance is so effective.

There isn’t a dead-eyed killer inside of Nitram. He’s not emotionally muted or empty. He has intellectual disabilities, but so do a lot of people who do not have murderous impulses. Whatever is going on inside of him is more complicated. There are some things that we will never completely understand.

Thanks to performances by this formidable cast, this is a riveting film.

Nitram. Written by Shaun Grant, directed by Justin Kurzel. Starring Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis, Anthony LaPaglia, Essie Davis, and Sean Keenan. Available May 6 on digital and VOD.