The scenery is really beautiful. The story is a slow burner, but it's worth watching for the ending.

Read the book, twice, and I'm not sure how the movie could have been much better. Maybe only sand gropers can really get it. Do yaself a favour, watch it.

I don't know it could be the second bottle of Sauv Blanc, Kelly McDonald does a really good Australian accent, the scenery is beautiful, but I don't know what the hell this movie is about. I came to IMDb so I could understand why I am watching this movie... I still don't know, encouraging my dogs to do toilets is more understandable.

Performance n production quality is ok for low budget Australian drama. the plot was nice in start but it gets stupid later. Call it a "Love" after a sex , when even doesnt even know the name ? one dumb generation ever. not husband n wife, a woman is gf of man who has 2 or 3 kids , but no passion or feeling between them , so she found a another stud who has a dog at one day and drops the panties in LOVE?. ok . ------------------spoilers--------------------- the reason why I didnt like the story or plot after half of the movie, because the man (fisherman) he starts suspects that his gf is having an affair and even she mentioned that she has no more feeling for him, so why bother to go after her? which unrealistic. even later when its revlead that it was not any feelings or anything when they both (fisherman n woman) starts relationship in past when she was playing with his kids. like its really stupid idea or logic here. i mean she didnt think that time but she realised it later when fisherman feel good that she is taking care his children. even that fisherman also cheated in past. There is no happy ending in "adultery / cheating " .

The movie would have been half decent if they had cast actual Australians in the lead roles. Having to sit and listen to those TERRIBLE fake accents made me laugh in parts where I should have been empathising with the characters. It also made most of the dialogue stilted and cringeworthy. It's a real shame that Australian films never seem to have Australians in them... what's the point?

Sorry but casting Americans and Scots to play Australians was doomed to fail. Hedlund and McDonald are both great; until they speak. The Aussie accent is notoriously difficult to fake. The question really is who made the decision to try and thereby doom an otherwise good movie to struggle.

This is a strange little film- not without its merits, but another Aussie feature that relies too heavily on landscape and moodiness than on a coherent and compelling narrative. Based on a Tim Winton novel; the beauty and harshness of the West Australian coast is majestically depicted here, but the plot is muddied and muddled with flashbacks and endless super wide vistas and perturbed close ups to really hit the target. Scottish Kelly Macdonald does a passable Australian accent and for me she is the best thing in this film. Always interesting, nay fascinating, Kelly imbues her character here with a mixture of yearning and sorrow, but the backstory for her feels shoehorned and lacks credulity. Likewise American Garret Hedlund is really fine here, but did we need both leads to be imported? A Hemsworth would have fit the bill just as well as the good looking drifter that Garrett embodies here. His flashbacks and perspectives are more front and centre, but I personally found them less successful and somewhat obtuse. Perhaps the prosaic elements of the novel made this a little unfilmable but experienced Director Gregor Jordan certainly gave it a shot. I just didn't really feel much watching this. Nice to look at; but a bit ho hum and certainly the music and the dirt were less than compelling. On the plus side, it is always a treat to see Aussie veteran Chris Haywood pop up.

Considering the last Tim Winton cinematic adaptation before Dirt Music was 2017's memorable and effective Breath, hopes were high that Gregor Jordan's talent-filled Western Australia set romantic drama would be more of the same, tapping into local audiences affections as well as those overseas who were seeking a new bout of Australian drama to fill their needs. Sadly this was not to be. Receiving a tepid at best response upon first showings way back in 2019, Jordan's star-studded local film is a complete and utter failure of a feature that is loosely strung together by a cold and emotionless "romance" between Kelly Macdonald's lonely Georgie, whose tiresome relationship with David Wenham's barely used fisherman Jim leads her to seek out an affair with Garret Hedlund's mysterious ex-muso Lu, a man whose past is holding him back from moving into the future. Famous for his way with words, Winton's works have always been well-regarded in book circles and there's potential somewhere deep down in this tale of lost souls finding a way through thanks to each other but neither Jordan, whose proven before he can handle a good film with the likes of Two Hands and Buffalo Soldiers standing out in his C.V or the usually fantastic scribe Jack Thorne (a long term Shane Meadows collaborator and the man responsible for adapting hit TV series His Dark Materials) manage to ever get Dirt Music out of first gear as the film loses its audience early on to a procession of instances and occurrences that happen without an ounce of build up or ground work to lead into them. For an Australian film, Dirt Music is clearly a more prestigious local production than most, the West Australia backdrops make for some stunning eye candy and deserve a better film to live in and the talent on screen is of the highest order but all main actors get very little too work with and potentially even feel miscast with the usually reliable Macdonald struggling to get much happening (including a very odd Oz accent, very different to her native Irish tongue), Wenham getting nothing of substance too do and the up and down Hedlund once more appearing to be lost in a feature even though you know there's a great actor hiding within him somewhere. It makes one wonder why more local talent couldn't be used also. No doubt its easier to sell a film overseas with more recognisable international faces but surely there's actors capable of performing well in such a film, especially when no one was appearing to offer quality control to a film that has no soul, focus or imagination present within it. Final Say - The locations are nice. That's about as much as you could say in the way of good things about this sadly D.O.A Australian affair. Wasting source material from one of our countries most respected writers and the talents of three capable performers, Dirt Music strikes a dull note from the moment it starts until the moment it ends on a whimper. 1 sand dune out of 5

Stop making movies about degenerates who have sex because they are just desperate, make children and don't give a flying duck about anything else but "oh my life is boring, I'll have an adventure". Not a positive example to follow.

So disappointing, on so many levels. Thank goodness for the beautiful scenery & music. Going to see an adaptation of a Tim Winton book, with Gregor Jordan directing, with David Wenham & Aaron Pedersen in the cast, shot in W A and with Julia Stone contributing her beautiful voice and music, should have been an all round delightful experience. Sadly my expectations were way too high! Very surprised to be so let down by the direction and acting so I can only conclude that Jack Thorne struggled desperately with the adaptation from written word to the screen. Even David Wenham struggled, unusually. A high point of the casting was Aaron Pedersen, just a pity he didn't get more screen time. Hard to understand how the usually highly talented Gregor Jordan's direction was so lacking and again, can only conclude that the product he had to work with was so below standard.