When Joshua 'J' Cody (James Frecheville) finds his mother dead from a drug overdose he contacts his grandmother Janine (Jacki Weaver) for support. Janine is the matriarch for the crime family that J's mother tried to shield him from. The family is made up of Janine and her three sons Andrew (Ben Mendelsohn), Darren (Luke Ford) and Craig (Sullivan Stapleton), as well as a close family friend in Barry Brown (Joel Edgerton). They are all under stress given the trigger happy nature of the police force who are in a standoff against the underworld. J's entry into the family exposes him to the drug culture that the rest of the family is already accustomed to. When Barry is executed at point blank range by a police officer it sparks dangerous tensions between the Cody's and the police. A cop named Leckie (Guy Pearce) is quick to latch onto J to see if he will help them bring down the crime family because he knows the dangers that J and his girlfriend Nicky (Laura Wheelwright) are in.

Animal Kingdom, directed by David Michôd, carries a sense of nostalgia for Australian cinema. It reminds the audience of Australia's ability to cinematically tell powerful and intimate stories of lower class thugs, with a high degree of realism and verisimilitude. Yet its tendency to cover overly familiar elements of the crime genre is also suggestive of the ongoing problems with script development in this country. One of the first mistakes that the screenplay makes is killing off one of the film's most interesting and engaging characters at the start of the film. With the discussion about giving up the life of crime and getting into business there is a suggestion that this will be a revisionist type of crime film. This promise is never fulfilled with the death of this character and as such the film rarely transcends the genre. It delivers us once more into the lives of drug addicts, lowlifes, straight and crooked cops and exposes us to sporadic but senseless violence. There are few characters who can win the sympathy of the audience here. J has been deliberately characterised as a monotone teenager, who is incapable of thinking for himself and the way that he is pulled in different directions by the opposite sides of the law is one of the most interesting ideas in the script. Yet its been overly written to the point where it just isn't credible. In the very first scene in the film J insists on watching television while the paramedics attend to his mum in the same room. Frecheville has presumably been directed to play this role in a specific way, showing very little emotion, but it also makes his character almost entirely inaccessible and the film becomes distancing. Significantly, there are also a glaring number of plot holes in the narrative too, specifically the omission of any forensic investigation for the crimes, suggesting a lack of research during the script writing process.

For the various problems with the script, the direction of Michôd should still be commended for the grittiness and realism in which the film has been visualised. The locations of the film, like the interior of the Cody house, seem real and contribute significantly in one's belief of the family dynamics. The quite, intimate moments are contrasted with sporadic but graphic violence that is never glorified, unlike the television series Underbelly and its kinetic visual style. Even more impressive are the performances of the cast, who aside from Frecheville, are excellent. Joel Edgerton is missed throughout the film because he grounds his character with a believable amount of intelligence. Ben Mendelsohn is trippy as 'Pope' and his ability to combine a doped out image with his violent unpredictability makes him quite menacing. Jackie Weaver is also splendid as the slightly over-bearing grandmother, with a much nastier edge. Easily the most sympathetic character in the film is J's girlfriend and her parents are perfectly cast, even though they only have very minor roles. Why they would let their daughter's boyfriend, who has notorious relatives, stay in their house though is one of the many plot holes that has to be overlooked.

Animal Kingdom is a solid crime film but it lacks the emotional pull to make it particularly memorable. This is mostly due to the lack of a particularly engaging protagonist. There are plenty of strong performances throughout this film, particularly Mendelsohn, but it does make the audience question where the film is meant to be heading when we are forced to side with someone who seems to be almost entirely incapable of redeeming themselves here. With a tighter script and less plot holes this could have been a much more successful film given the number of good performances and also the high degree of realism that has been employed to tell this story.

A rather unsatisfactory conclusion to a grim story about an Australian family of professional criminals doesn't mar the fact that Animal Kingdom is one interesting piece of cinema. Topping the film is Jacki Weaver who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but lost in the Oscar sweepstakes to Melissa Leo for The Fighter who played a similar role as a family matriarch.

I guess the best thing you can compare Jacki Weaver's part of 'Smurf' Cody is that of Ma Barker in the USA during the wild and woolly Depression Thirties who raised quite the criminal clan herself. I also have to say that as an American who gets constantly put upon for all the gun violence in this country is to see another country step up and admit they've got a big problem in that direction as well. Animal Kingdom was shot in Melbourne and from what I can see, Melbourne of 2011 stands close comparison to Chicago of the Thirties.

Weaver's grandson James Frecheville comes to live with her after his mother takes a heroin overdose as she is his closest kin. Apparently dad isn't in the picture. Despite a lifestyle that did include some controlled substance abuse, Frecheville's mom did what she could to keep her kid away from her family. Now he gets an introduction to their way of life and it's quite the culture shock.

Melbourne PD detective Guy Pearce takes some interest in the kid both personally and as a witness to bring the Codys to justice. American audiences probably know Pearce best from LA Confidential where he played an American LAPD detective from the Fifties. The Codys have their hooks into the Melbourne PD, but not with Pearce and his crowd who seem to have a private war with the Codys who are treated like the famous gangsters of the American Thirties with a shoot first and no questions asked and the hell with due process, however that's constituted in the Aussie legal system.

Animal Kingdom gives foreign audiences a look at the dark underside of Australian criminal life. Weaver's performance is not to be missed.

"Animal Kingdom" is a highly respected Australian film that's apparently received a HUGE number of nominations for the Australian Film Awards--as well as an Oscar nomination for Jacki Weaver (as the matriarch of the family--who did a great job playing pure evil). And, I must say that technically speaking, it is a very good film. However, I must also say that it's a thoroughly unpleasant film that really had no payoff by the end. In many ways, it reminds me of "Winter's Bone"--though I think "Winter's Bone" handles similar material in a better and much more satisfying way.

The film centers on Josh (James Frecheville)--a very quiet and introverted young man who comes from an incredibly sick and twisted family. The film begins with his mother overdosing from drugs and he moves in with his grandmother and his uncles--and this new home is MUCH more destructive and sick! The uncles all sell drugs and are very violent men--and eventually the police home in on these sick folks and then things get REALLY crazy. I could say a lot more, but I don't want to ruin the suspense.

While I like films that fight against convention and formula, I had a problem with this film that you perhaps might not. I wanted all this sickness and dysfunction to somehow work out for the good and for there to be SOME sense of meaning. Instead, the ending just reinforced the complete lack of meaning and left me very cold. Well made but VERY depressing and unsatisfying--it's hard to like a movie where you really don't like anyone.