Film based on Morcombe case no ‘cruel act’ - Sydney Morning Herald

The Stranger ★★★★.

The Stranger is based on Kate Kyriacou’s book The Sting: the Undercover Operation that Caught Daniel Morcombe’s Killer.

Edgerton plays an undercover cop, with Sean Harris as a drifter known in the film as Henry Teague.

The film competed at Cannes in May and had its Australian premiere at the Melbourne Film Festival – two significant accolades.

It has no representation of that victim, no representation of their family, there is no violence in the film, all names and details have been changed,” Wright told an interviewer before the MIFF screening.

Most of the film takes place on the desolate southern coast of WA, as Mark (Edgerton) befriends drifter Henry (Harris), by pretending to be part of a serious organised crime gang.

In tone, the film is brilliantly hidden.

Indeed, the whole film is a remarkable achievement, compassionate and thoughtful, a long way from the exploitative film that the family feared.