Red Hill

The “first day on the job” cop movie wanders into the territory of the modern Western in Patrick Hughes’ feature writing-directing debut, Red Hill. Ryan Kwanten plays a big-city policeman who asks to be reassigned to a small Australian town, ostensibly to ease the stress on his pregnant wife, but also because his superiors questioned his nerve after he hesitated to shoot a young junkie. The town he moves to is a ranching community, with one main road leading past the hotel, a town hall, and tourist traps. When he warns a fellow constable that there’s a horse loose in the parking lot, his new co-worker says, “Yeah, that’s Ol’ Bets, she lives here.” And when there’s a prison break nearby and one of the cons rolls in to exact vengeance on the people who threw him in jail, the locals keep secrets from Kwanten that could get him killed.