It was written and directed by Anna Reeves, produced by Anthony Buckley and Piers Tempest, and stars Alex O'Loughlin and Diana Glenn.

Jack Flange is caring for his sister Nikki, who is in hospital following a serious car accident and is facing dwindling health insurance money to pay for her recovery.

Amongst these is eight-generation oyster farmer Brownie and his elderly father Mumbles, who Jack applies to for a job as cover while he waits for the money’s arrival.

Brownie tells Jack that Pearl’s credit card had to be cut up and she has had to be bailed out of jail multiple times, all to do with her shoe habit.

[3] Paul Byrnes of the Sydney Morning Herald addresses the foundations of this perception in noting ‘the film has an almost ethnographic feel, combining the details of the working lives of the characters with a sly sense of comedy’.

[6] Jami Bernard of the NY Daily News comments on the effectiveness of the chosen location, observing that ‘The realistic scenes of oyster farming and the beauty of the Hawkesbury River lend this movie a degree of fascination that its taciturn, beer-swilling characters can't provide’.

[7] The cultural backdrop provided by the location, urban dialect and working lives of the characters establishes a strong sense of Australian familiarity that pervades the film’s aesthetic.

Sharon Hurst summarises the film as capturing ‘vague feelings about the bitter-sweet quality of life – its longings, broken dreams, hopes, past baggage, forgiveness, and coming to terms and just getting on with it’.

Paul Byrnes of the NFSA briefly addresses these relationships in his excerpt ‘Everyone Needs a Drama’, observing that ‘Brownie’s estrangement from his wife Trish is given almost as much screen time as the burgeoning romance of Jack and Pearl’.

[13] Catherine Simpson of Macquarie University observed that the film "provides its audience with a novel reconfiguring of gender relations in a small, tight-knit river community – a space rarely glimpsed on screen".

Simpson elucidates that the film's "black comic tone" and female directorial lead reconfigures the hierarchical structure of small, regional, working towns.

Simpson categorises Trish and her solitary farming endeavours as the balance to the camera’s ‘endless objectification of the central male protagonist’.

[14] Reeves stated that she chose the area due to her 'love of the river's epic landscape' and its ability to attribute 'a sense of its vastness and isolation’[16] to the film.

Paul Byrnes commented on Reeves’ choice, saying the chosen location ‘provides a serene and peaceful setting against which to contrast the inner turmoil and dramas of the characters who make their living from it’.

[20] Oyster Farmer enjoyed some free publicity, due to rumours that its star Alex O'Loughlin was a finalist for the recast role of James Bond in preparation for the development of Casino Royale.

[29] Laura Kern of the New York Times claimed ‘this darkly humorous, sometimes even raunchy film mostly eludes a typical cutesy, feel-good formula’.

[30] Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer made a similar assessment, stating ‘at times it gets lost in the backwaters, but the eccentric characters and offbeat humour make it an entertaining detour’.

[32] A positive outlook was expressed by Megan Spencer of SBS, who said ‘The characters are well drawn and authentic, and Reeves clearly had a ball fashioning the language of this film and the dialogue’.

[34] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter considered the film to be substantially lacking, commenting that it ‘fails to overcome its hokey script and cliched characterizations’.

[35] V.A Musetto of the New York Post took a similar approach, stating ‘While her cast is talented, Reeves doesn’t concentrate long enough on any plotline or character to build viewer interest’.