“The Stranger” is an Australian crime thriller, written and directed by Thomas M. Wright, based on Kate Kyriacou’s novel The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe’s Killer — follows a group of undercover cops, who, inspired by a Canadian police operation, create an elaborate scheme to trap a kidnapping and murder suspect to retrieve a confession and the possible location of the victim’s body nearly a decade after the abduction. This operation required the suspect to be befriended, something he has long craved.
The thriller is an actor's showcase centered around a powerful performance by Joel Edgerton and a surprisingly impactful performance by the most famous actor in the villain role, Sean Harris. By avoiding the actual crime and focusing on the investigation years after the initial kidnapping, the director is merciful without dragging the family's ordeal into the mix. This draws the police and the suspect as the only characters of interest in the story, thus creating a character-driven story with great acting. To the credit of director Wright and the cast, The Stranger succeeds in engaging the audience with the performances and the story that unfolds around this friendship.
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