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Australia, late 1800s. A young boy, Ned Kelly (Heath Ledger), is thrown into prison for assaulting a police officer. Once released, he is first accused of horse theft with the complicity of some of his friends and then of shooting another policeman. Feeling targeted and unjustly accused, Ned decides to escape with a band of his loyal followers, becoming an outlaw. He will be hunted for some time until the final showdown...
Inspired by the life of the rebel Ned Kelly, who became a legend in Australia, director Gregor Jordan has created a truthful but not colossal historical representation, adhering to the book "Our Sunshine" written by Robert Drew from which the plot is drawn. However, the dual source of inspiration is not enough to create a convincing screenplay.
The cast is stellar: Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush. Despite the names, which suggest great performances, many of the aforementioned actors disappoint. First of all, Watts has a significant but decidedly limited role within the film, resulting in a side character. Geoffrey Rush, with all his experience, gives no sign of engagement and is the least successful character in the story. The duo of Bloom and Ledger is saved, central pillars of the entire film.
The story is thus convincing and in some ways engaging, but the Australian director fails to give it a linearity that would make the viewing of the film "light." The first 20/30 minutes are indeed slow and confusing, given the choice to immediately place before us the various implications of the story. The film is a slow alternation of well-crafted and engaging scenes that, however, are not supported by an adequate screenplay. Positive points certainly begin with a great soundtrack by Klaus Badelt, who had already composed the music for films like Constantine and Hannibal.
What weighs the most, however, is a weak screenplay: in historical films, it should be one of the fundamental points, yet it turns out weak and in certain cases out of place. The dialogues are quite sparse, although the skill of the performers ensures that the film does not seem excessively trivial. The true weak point of the screenplay is paradoxically its simplicity: the script is not very "novelistic" or, if you prefer, not very "literary."
Ned Kelly is still an enjoyable and fascinating film. A positive note is the continuous search for landscape representations so dear to Australian filmmakers, and moreover worth highlighting is a very epic final sequence. It's certainly not a masterpiece, but it is a well-shot film that, despite everything, proves to be enjoyable.
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