A fishing trip with fishy male behavior

Gabriel Byrne describes his latest movie, “Jindabyne,” as “densely layered.” It’s also unsettling.

Set in the mountainous countryside in southwestern Australia, the drama revolves around four male friends on a fishing holiday who come across the dead body of a young Aboriginal woman in the water.

Instead of immediately telling the authorities about the body, they tie the woman’s leg to a rock, so she won’t float down the river, and continue on their trip.

Though they report the discovery after the trip, the delay prompts reactions ranging from puzzlement to anger among their spouses, their girlfriends and others -- especially in the Aboriginal community.

Based on Raymond Carver’s short story “So Much Water So Close to Home,” the film was directed by Ray Lawrence (“Lantana”). It opens Friday.

“There are a lot of universal themes packed in the story,” says Byrne, who plays the garage owner who discovers the semi-nude body and later can’t understand why his wife (Laura Linney) is unable to forgive him.

“Is it possible to forgive another person if they deeply hurt you?” Byrne asks. “What is the nature of forgiveness? Is it enough to say, ‘I am sorry’? That’s what happens in the marriage with Laura Linney and myself.”

The film also explores concepts of the male hero in modern films “and how men act in situations of crisis and trauma,” he says.

“The unspoken assumption is that the male of the species must react in a heroic way.”

Yet Byrne’s Stewart is anything but a hero. He becomes hysterical and physically ill when he discovers the body.

If this were a conventional film, the actor says, his character would not display any sort of unmanly sensibility at such a moment. “I said [to the director], ‘I am going to make a decision to be unmanly when I find the body.’ ”

And he’s happy Lawrence agreed with his choice. “It’s important to make that statement about the macho hero and how he behaves. “

The director also gave his assent to Byrne’s request that he and Linney be allowed to improvise in a scene where an argument escalates into rage.

“I told Ray, ‘I don’t want it to be one of those tidy rows you see in the movies. I want it to look unmanly. I want it to look messy and graceless, as most rows are.’ We did it in one take.”

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-- Susan King