Animal Kingdom

It's always hard to approach a film that has been given five star reviews with low expectations and this was the challenge ahead of Animal Kingdom .

Now I'm not going to give it five stars but I will say now that it is one very good film, and one that gets better the more you think about it.

The central character is J (James Frecheville) who is taken in by his grandmother Janine (Jacki Weaver) when his mother overdoses and dies.

The family he is thrown into is one he's had little to do with since his mother had a fight with his grandmother over a game of cards.

Janine's family is involved in various illegal activities and is often playing cat and mouse with the cops. Andrew (Ben Mendelsohn), Barry (Joel Edgerton), Craig (Sullivan Stapleton) and Darren (Luke Ford) invite J into their world and he finds that it is a survival of the strongest.

A shocking event changes the tone of the film early on and from there it doesn't let go of you, there's an intense feeling that carries on right to the end. Very unsettling.

Interestingly, Animal Kingdom is low on the swearing. That's something I was surprised about but I also think it is a good thing because unnecessary swearing often ruins a film. Don't get me wrong there are a number of profanities at times but it's not overdone.

I won't go any further into the plot but the message you get from the film is a clear one.

And it is interesting to watch as the characters turn on each other in order to survive. It took a while for me to work out why it was called Animal Kingdom but in the end it is obvious.

The acting is superb, especially Mendelsohn and Stapleton and Weaver is surprising as the matriarch who may not be everything that she seems.

One of the better Australian films in a long time. It has its flaws but it's a solid 8 out of 10 for me.