Force of Nature: The Dry 2 (2024)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Damage Woods

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Aaron Falk returns in Robert Connolly's Force of Nature: The Dry 2, a perfectly serviceable sequel to The Dry, and an evenly-paced and with fine outdoor cinematography, capturing a novel's texture, if relying on a few too many flashbacks.

Federal police detective Falk (Eric Bana) is trying to take down a powerful, crooked businessman via a whistleblower, Alice (Anna Torv). She refuses to help, just before departing on a team-building exercise with her boss Jill (Deborra-Lee Furness) and three co-workers, Lauren (Robin McLeavy), and sisters Beth (Sisi Stringer) and Bree (Lucy Ansell). They head for a hike in Australia's dense Giralang woods, where they must reach certain markers to find supplies.

Unfortunately they get lost. Alice tries to call Falk, but the signal is poor and Falk can't understand what she's trying to say. Later, the women emerge from the woods, Bree injured from a spider bite and Alice missing. Falk must figure out what happened to Alice, determine if she was murdered due to her status as a whistleblower. But at the same time, he must battle his own demons, relating to his dark history with these woods.

Adapting another novel by Jane Harper, writer/director Connolly is back at the helm, although perhaps stuck with the awkward title Force of Nature: The Dry 2. The previous movie was set during a drought; if anything, this sequel is quite wet, taking place in a damp woods with a huge storm on its way. But the title aside, things get moving pretty well with the timely "whistleblower" setup, as well as the "what-really-happened-in-the-woods" theme.

Connolly keeps us on our toes, flashing back to the present day, showing the four women surviving the woods, with the previous days, and the five women lost in the woods, the tensions mounting between them. Things go slightly off track when he switches to an extensive flashback about Falk's childhood that might have had a stronger effect with more brevity.

Bana is solid in his role (which could become a franchise?), off the hook this time (in The Dry he was a suspect, connected with a drowning), and in full detective mode. The cast around him are likewise solid, especially Jacqueline McKenzie as Falk's partner Carmen; they make a fine team. All in all, Force of Nature: The Dry 2 might be too slow for many, but for those that don't mind a little time to meet the characters and ponder the mystery, it's worth a look.