Film Review: Drift

Drift. Rated M (drug use, coarse language, mature themes, violence and sexual references). 113 minutes. Directed by Ben Nott and Morgan O'Neill. Screenplay by Morgan O'Neill.

Verdict: Marvellously assured directorial debuts are a worthy cause for celebration.

Australian filmmakers making their feature length directorial debuts is a worthy cause for celebration – particularly while we are in the midst of a seemingly endless cycle of excessively violent, destruction-focussed, 3D, CGI-heavy slap downs from Hollywood.

With Drift, Nott and O’Neill make marvellously assured debuts as directors – particularly in the stunning opening sequence, shot in black and white, where Kat Kelly (Robyn Malcolm) and her young sons Jimmy and Andy flee their violently abusive home life. Leaving Sydney and heading west, the trio eventually arrive at Margaret River where Kat hopes to begin a new life for herself and her boys. As the film makes a wonderful transition to colour, Jimmy (Xavier Samuel) and Andy (Myles Pollard) have fully embraced the surf culture of their new home, and in a moment of divine inspiration, Andy decides to open a surf shop to service the burgeoning surf gear market up and down the west coast.

When it is not feeling as though it is padded out with clichéd and contrived conflict simply for the sake of it, O’Neill’s screenplay is fascinating. The storyline involving Aaron Glenane (The Black Balloon) as the brothers’ friend Gus who gradually sinks into a terrifying cycle of drug addiction is immensely powerful, and resolved with a stark, ritual brutality that is at odds with the freedom and abandonment with which many of the other characters exist in the world. Glenane’s is the best performance of the film, matched by Kelly’s perfect turn as the mum determined to do whatever it takes to ensure her boys are safe.

Sam Worthington delivers a fine performance as JB, a photographer who helps the Kelly brothers capture the essence of their surf-based world, while Lesley-Ann Brandt (TV’s Spartacus: Gods of the Arena) is perfect as JB’s travelling companion Lani, with whom both of the brothers fall in love.

The mighty Margaret River locations are beautifully photographed by cinematographer Geoffrey Hall (Chopper, Red Dog), while the abundance of fantastic wave action is superbly photographed by surf cinematographers Rick Rifici and Rick Jakovich. Editor Marcus D’Arcy (Tomorrow, When the War Began) ensures that the film moves at an immensely agreeable pace, while the production design from Clayton Jauncey (Beneath Hill 60) recreates the 1970s perfectly.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Housos vs Authority

Housos vs Authority. Rated MA 15+ (frequent strong coarse language, sex scenes and drug use). 103 minutes. Written and directed by Paul Fenech.

Verdict: Fenech’s housos very quickly wear out their welcome in this long, repetitive big screen adaptation.

The history of Australian cinema is littered with films that celebrate anarchic, irreverent, broad-based humour – almost to the point that it sometimes seems that for every Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) there’s a The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972). Equally, Australian characters from the lower end of the country’s socio-economic spectrum have been the subject of many satirical films and television series from Kath and Kim to Fenech’s controversial television series Housos that premiered on SBS in late 2011.

Departures: Australian film gets distribution and heads to LA

The Australian made award-winning supernatural horror film Muirhouse has this week confirmed to have signed with horror distributors Monster Pictures (distributors of The Notorious and The Human Centipede films).

Muirhouse is set to hit Australian cinemas over the coming months. This follows the announcement that the film is heading to LA at the invitation of the iconic Shriekfest Film Festival.

Film review: Kath & Kimderella

Kath & Kimderella. Rated PG (mild coarse language and nudity). 86 minutes. Directed by Ted Emery. Screenplay by Gina Riley and Jane Turner.

Verdict: A timely reminder not to take ourselves too seriously from the Kath & Kim team.

There were always going to be big expectations of the feature film (or ‘fillum’) version of the hit television series Kath & Kim – the hugely popular series that first introduced us to the foxy Kath (Jane Turner), her self-indulgent daughter Kim (Gina Riley) and Kim’s second-best friend Sharon (Magda Szubanski).

Departures: New Australian film to take on homophobia

Cinema is a powerful medium to highlight issues that no one wants to discuss. Movies give a voice to those that need it most. This was the motivation behind award-winning director and cinematographer Dean Francis’s (Road Train and Boys Grammar) choice of Drown as his next feature film project.

Based on the acclaimed play by writer Stephen Davis (Blurred and City Loop), Drown highlights jealousy, homophobic fears and unrequited lust at its most graphic level.

Film Review: The Sapphires

The Sapphires. Rated PG (mild violence, themes, coarse language and sexual references). 99 minutes. Directed by Wayne Blair. Screenplay by Tony Briggs and Keith Thompson.

Verdict: An incandescent little jewel of a film that is as equally entertaining as it is contemplative.

It is 1968, and when four talented young Aboriginal women audition for the chance to take their singing group to Vietnam to entertain the troops, they are blissfully unaware of the life-threatening dangers that will confront them. Their collective experiences of war, death and separation will change their lives forever.

Based on Briggs’s award-winning play of the same name, and inspired by the true story of his mother Laurel and aunt Lois, The Sapphires is a sparkling little jewel of a film that not only entertains, but also provides moments of powerful contemplation focussed on the true nature of soul, matriarchy, race and the comparatively threadbare connotations of privilege. One of the film’s many dramatic highpoints – a beautiful scene where the ‘stolen’ Kay (Shari Sebbens) is welcomed home to country – is as powerful and involving a scene as all the chaotic, Vietnam war-based sequences that have preceded it.

Film Review: Face to Face

Face to Face. Rated MA15+ (strong coarse language). 88 minutes. Written and directed by Michael Rymer. Based on the play by David Williamson.

Nothing, it would seem, can fuel a debate amongst the literarti like mentioning David Williamson. Punctured with indignation, envy and arch, sweeping generalisations about the value of his creative contribution to Australian Theatre (which is not only important, but vast) – Williamson is most-often derided for bringing characters who inhabit the great, formative Australian middle-class to Australian stages. Quelle horreur!

In his perfectly-structured play on which Mr Rymer’s equally rock-solid screenplay is based, Williamson has mined the gloriously rich territory of conflict resolution. And if Williamson has mined it, then Rymer has excavated it – respectfully acknowledging the inherent security of the story’s stagebound origin (it mostly takes place in one room) while also using – to great effect – flashbacks to the chain of events that has brought everyone to this critical junction in their lives.

Wayne Travers (Luke Ford) is facing the grim prospect of going to jail for what appears to be a pre-meditated act of life-threatening violence against his boss Greg Baldoni (Vince Colosimo). When Jack Manning (Matthew Newton) convenes a mediation between the opposing parties, everyone involved is forced to confront the ugly truths about how they are each responsible for the potentially lethal meltdown of an enthusiastically naïve young worker.

It’s not often that one comments on the casting of a film – but in the case of Face to Face, Greg Apps and Loretta Crawford have absolutely nailed it. This is an extraordinary ensemble of very fine Australian talent – and the film works as well as it does because the cast are utterly committed to every finite detail of the work.

Mr Ford (Animal Kingdom, The Black Balloon, Kokoda, Red Dog) is brilliant as the tortured young labourer, and the camera simply cannot get enough of his cracked-lipped, dribbling, snotty meltdown. If Ford’s is one of the must-see performances of the year so far, Mr Colosimo is on equal footing as the owner/operator of the Baldoni scaffolding and construction company. As his small business, his marriage and his very existence are slowly and systematically disassembled right before his eyes, Colosimo’s marvellously under-stated performance is a masterclass in acting for the camera. His restlessness and awkward self-deprecation are wonderful counterpoints to the extent to which Sigrid Thornton literally unravels as his dutiful wife Claire. In one of the film’s many illuminating moments of contemplation of the toxic consequences of a heartless workplace prank, Ms Thornton holds the screen with a supreme wordless presence and intention. It is one of an almost embarrassing number of great moments.

The real surprise, however, are the (perhaps arguably) lesser-known actors (Robert Rabiah, Ra Chapman, Lauren Clair, Christopher Connelly, Laura Gordon, Josh Saks and Richard Sutherland) who constantly reinforce the fact that the performances in this film are nothing less than a tour de force. Each of them has their moments in the spotlight and account for them magnificently.

Given the luxury of riches in the acting stakes, it might be argued that all Mr Rymer (Angel Baby) and his cinematographer Dennys Ilic had to do was turn on the camera and point it in the right direction. But if point of view is everything in telling stories on the screen, Rymer is always in precisely the right place at the right time, with a dazzling array of single-room-defying shots that capture every detail of the performances. The constantly churning relationships between the key players is superbly maintained, captured and expressed, and Rymer’s outstanding work behind the camera is beautifully matched by Mr Newton’s calm, curious and masterful control of the proceedings in front of it.

It is proving to be a watershed year for Australian cinema – and Face to Face is a powerful, involving, and very welcome addition to the fold.

Pictured: Sigrid Thornton and Vince Colosimo in Face to Face. Image supplied.

Face to Face screens nationally from tomorrow.

Film Review: Red Dog

Red Dog. Rated PG (mild themes, coarse language and sexual references). 92 minutes. Directed by Kriv Stenders. Screenplay by Daniel Taplitz. Based on the novel by Louis de Bernières.

The feelings upon leaving the cinema after seeing this fantastic Australian film are countless. You’ll probably be feverishly wiping away the tears and forcing out uncontrollable laughter. That will be when you are not wondering why on earth it took someone so long to bring this story to the screen – before, at some point, breathing in deeply and remarking how they just don’t make films like this anymore. Because – put simply – they don’t.

Almost drowned in the film distribution cycle of slap-down, international blockbusters, Red Dog is a quintessentially Australian film. The Pilbara-based locations – Dampier, Karratha, Mount Tom Price and beyond – all star in this great yarn about a lovable red kelpie (played to heart-melting perfection by Koko) whose particular brand of loyalty to his one true master brings the disparate, hard-working folk of a remote mining community together.

Stenders elicits fine performances from his cast (which includes John Batchelor, Noah Taylor, Rachael Taylor, the late Bill Hunter, Josh Lucas and Luke Ford), while Taplitz’s flashback-based screenplay neatly incorporates the ambitions and aspirations of the people who work for Hamersley Iron as they recall how Red Dog came into their lives. Rohan Nichol is particularly impressive as the grieving ‘Jocko’ – and it is impossible to deny the impact of his Great Australian Dream speech in the local pub.

Cinematographer Geoffrey Hall (Dirty Deeds, Chopper) and editor Jill Bilcock (Strictly Ballroom, Muriel's Wedding) are obviously right at home in this territory – although my only minor disappointment was that we didn’t get to linger a little longer in some of the mighty locations. Ian Gracie’s (Art Director for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Australia, Moulin Rouge!) production design showcases the 1970s to perfection – providing the film with a memorable and distinctive Australian charm that is difficult to resist.

But dog-lovers be warned. No feats of ordinary human resistance will be possible.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Festival Update: The Hunter lines up

The Hunter, from director Daniel Nettheim (Rush, The Secret Life of Us), will have its world premiere at the prestigious ‘Special Presentation’ section of the 36th Toronto International Film Festival in September – lining up in the celebrated company of past selectees including Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler.

“I am thrilled to be presenting The Hunter to Toronto audiences, a story and landscape that is distinctly Australian and a film that I am very proud of”, Nettheim said.

Announcing the news this morning, Paul Wiegard, Managing Director of the film’s distributors Madman Entertainment, said: “Madman is ecstatic the film is being introduced to industry and public audiences attending the Toronto International Film Festival. The stunningly beautiful Tasmanian landscape, international cast and exotic nature of the film will have broad appeal.”

Equally thrilled is the film’s Producer Vincent Sheehan (Animal Kingdom, Little Fish). “It has been a long journey and quite an adventure making The Hunter, and selection for Toronto is certainly very exciting, but I am equally looking forward to our Australian release later this year”, Sheehan said.

Based on the novel by Julia Leigh, The Hunter is described as ‘a powerful psychological drama’ that tells the story of Martin (Willem Dafoe), a mercenary sent from Europe by a mysterious biotech company to the Tasmanian wilderness on a dramatic hunt for the last Tasmanian Tiger.

Still courtesy Madman Entertainment.

Box Office Matters: Snowtown takes a bow at a million plus

In only its seventh week of theatrical release, Snowtown – the debut feature from director Justin Kurzel and producers Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw – has passed the magical $1 million box office mark.

Madman Entertainment, the film’s Australian distributors, have announced that Snowtown’s current cumulative box office take is AUS$1,001,760 – making it the third highest grossing Australian film of 2010 behind Sanctum and Oranges and Sunshine.

Snowtown will also receive an international theatrical release through Revolver Entertainment in the UK and IFC Films in North America.

Pictured: Louise Harris in Snowtown. Image courtesy Madman Entertainment.

Film Review: Snowtown

Snowtown. Rated MA15+ (strong themes and violence, sexual violence and coarse language). 120 minutes. Directed by Justin Kurzel. Screenplay by Shaun Grant.

As serial killing sprees always do, the infamous ‘bodies in the barrels’ murders in South Australia have both captivated and repelled our society’s fascination for the evil that men and women are capable of. In Snowtown, Kurzel and Grant hit their marks – absolutely – with an unrelentingly gruelling, shocking and unapologetic study of how the pursuit of deadly intentions can infiltrate a vulnerable community with utterly devastating results.

When the charismatic and resourceful John Bunting (Daniel Henshall) rides into town, his first task is to rid the neighbourhood of the sex-offender who lives across the road from a family of three young boys and their mother Elizabeth Harvey (Louise Harris). Having earned the admiration and respect of young Jamie Vlassakis (Lucas Pittaway) and his two brothers, Bunting’s blood-lusty killer instinct finds a foothold, and before too much longer, perverts, friends and acquaintances are dispatched with alarming precision and a singularly precise motive – they deserve to die.

Magnificently photographed in an uncompromisingly colourless fashion by Animal Kingdom cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, Snowtown is an astonishing feature film debut from Kurzel, and Grant’s screenplay is bone-chilling in both its efficiency and the way in which it refuses to detour from the entirely horrific circumstances in which this fragile community exists.

Ms Harris is brilliant as the complex and tortured matriarch, and without her potent (and often wordless) comprehension of the unravelling horror and her powerlessness to do anything about it, Snowtown would disintegrate into a shocking indulgence. It is one of the best performances in an Australian film – ever. Henshall is magnetic as Bunting, even if his one-note role in the story ultimately becomes (as you might expect) too wearying. Pittaway (pictured) is equally superb as the damaged teenager – whose eyes reveal the dead heart and soul that provides the film with its confronting final shot. The brilliant supporting cast all commit to the story with rare skill and a complete lack of pretension – providing the film with a incredibly confronting level of honesty and authenticity.

Like its step-brother Animal Kingdom, Snowtown represents something of a new maturity in our film culture. It is an often unwatchable, exhausting, cruel and confronting piece of cinema – and should either be seen, or avoided, for precisely those reasons.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Tomorrow, When The War Began

Tomorrow, When The War Began. 104 minutes. Rated M. Written and Directed by Stuart Beattie. Based on the novel by John Marsden.

Writer Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl, Collateral, Australia) makes his directorial debut with this slippery account of John Marsden’s best-seller about the impact of a hostile invasion of Australia on a group of fun-loving teens on the cusp of adulthood. While it’s certainly no masterpiece (great slabs of dreary and repetitious romantically-inclined exposition should have ended up on the cutting-room floor), the talented young cast work hard to engage us and the big action set-pieces are expertly handled and hugely effective.

Ellie (Neighbours’ Caitlin Stasey) and her best friend Corrie (Rachel Hurd-Wood) invite their friends Lee (Christopher Pang), Homer (Deniz Akdeniz), Kevin (Lincoln Lewis), Fiona (Phoebe Tonkin) and Robyn (Ashleigh Cummings) on a weekend camping trip to ‘Hell’ – a beautiful, isolated grotto in the nearby mountains. One night, asleep under the stars, the group are awoken by the ominous roar of fighter planes overhead. Unable to even contemplate that these are enemy aircraft beginning an invasion of their country, the group continue to relax and enjoy their time away together. When they return home, they find that everything about their world has changed for the worst – and together they must find the strength and resolve to do their bit to fight for the freedom they have, until now, taken for granted.

Beattie’s inconsistent script provides little real insight into the minds of Marsden’s resourceful warriors and focuses too heavily (and far too literally) on what becomes tedious romantic angst. Ms Cummings gives the best performance as a young girl having to resolve the conflict between her strongly-held religious beliefs and the ultimate price she must pay to protect the safety and wellbeing of her friends, while Ms Tonkin, too, is great as the innocent city girl who finds herself more than capable of rising to meet the enemy when faced with no other choice.

Beattie’s direction, Ben Nott’s (Daybreakers) cinematography, Marcus D’Arcy’s (Sea Patrol, Babe, Lorenzo's Oil) editing and Robert Webb’s (Rogue, The Caterpillar Wish) production design are at their best in the war and resistance sequences (particularly an amazing night-time sequence when the house the teenagers are hiding in is visited by an enemy helicopter). The scenes of a previously vibrant Australian country town and its population decimated by the horrors of occupation are extremely well done and confronting – and it is these sequences that mark Tomorrow … as an occasionally arresting experience. Overall, it’s a well-intentioned but frustratingly patchy affair, even if the pay-off is certainly worth the wait.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

DVD Review: Daybreakers

Daybreakers. 94 minutes. MA15+. Directed and written by Michael and Peter Spierig.

With Undead (2003), their marvellous, low-budget sci-fi/horror film about aliens who arrive to save the residents of a small-town from a zombie plague, the Queensland-based Spierig Brothers – twins Michael and Peter – launched their filmmaking careers. Here was a fantastically imaginative addition to the celebrated genre that literally sparkled with invention, broad brushstrokes of tongue-in-cheek humour and great affection for zombified chaos. What, genre aficionados eagerly anticipated, would they do next?

It’s 2019, and a mysterious plague has turned most of the world’s population into vampires. The remaining humans are hunted and farmed for their blood, but as the human race nears extinction, vampire scientists – lead by haematologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) – become involved in a race against time to develop a blood substitute before the vampires, themselves, become extinct.

While there is certainly a huge amount to enjoy about this occasionally clever, big-budget blood-fest, unhappily, all the sheer, unbridled creativity that defined Undead appears to have been shoe-horned into a slick, genre treatment that just ends up feeling disappointingly derivative and unoriginal. It’s not helped, either, by the miscast Hawke (Gattaca) or the unengaged performance from a sedate Willem Dafoe, who both appear uncomfortably ill-at-ease with the material.

On the other hand, Michael Dorman is great as Edward’s tortured, human-hunting brother Frankie, while Sam Neill has a field day scowling and prowling around all over the place as Charles Bromley, the head of his human-farming corporation. Isabel Lucas feasts on her cameo as his activist daughter Alison – and there’s a strong sense that this much more interesting relationship was somewhat strangely abandoned in the scriptwriting process.

Ben Nott’s steely grey cinematography, George Liddle’s (Evil Angels) production design and Bill Booth’s (The Proposition) art direction stylishly account for the handsome, sleek, futuristic science-fiction environments. Matt Villa’s editing manages to ensure that the script’s obvious fractures and structural flaws don’t seriously derail the whole affair – even if you do get the feeling that, particularly in the ultra-gory, blood-soaked sequences, it’s all getting a little too indulgent and out of control.

Ultimately, however, it is Steven Boyle’s superb, Nosferatu-inspired ‘Subsiders’ design (with Bryan Probets, Sahaj Dumpleton and Kellie Vella turning in memorable ‘Subsider’ cameos) that steals the show – and it is this sub-plot concerning near-death vampires turning into marauding, cannibalistic savages (together with some particularly gruesome scenes of their extermination) that really lifts Daybreakers into genre-defining territory.

It’s just a real shame that the comparatively boring human characters (including Claudia Karvan as a stereotypical heroine) keep getting in the way of all the action and real excitement – to the point where you end up wishing they’d just drive off into the distance a lot sooner than they do, never to be seen again.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Midwest Times.

Film Review: Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom. 113 minutes. MA15+. Written and Directed by David Michôd.

When David Michôd’s debut feature Animal Kingdom was catapulted into the international spotlight by winning one of the Sundance Film Festival’s prestigious Grand Jury Prizes, the anticipation accompanying its release in Australia became intense. Here was an Australian film from an unknown writer and director that had taken the film world entirely by surprise. Absent were the big name drawcards, the massive production and marketing budgets, and the almost pre-requisite tourism tie-ins.

Michôd’s near-perfect film is an astonishingly accomplished debut – nurtured by, one suspects, devoted and complete attention to every creative detail by Producer Liz Watts (Little Fish). Brave producers are rare beasts, and they can make or break a film’s chances of escaping anonymity. The intensive script development process to which Michôd’s script has been subjected, has paid rich dividends. It’s the most engrossing piece of writing for the camera in recent memory – and the creative team, including Art Director Janie Parker (Somersault, Little Fish) and Production Designer Josephine Ford (My Brother Jack) have responded to its lean, purely cinematic muscle with absolute relish and conviction.

The allegorical ‘animals’ of the title are the Cody family, led with chilling efficiency by matriarch Janine (Jacki Weaver, in a career-defining performance). When her daughter dies from a drug overdose leaving her teenage son Joshua (James Frecheville, pictured) orpahaned, Janine takes responsibility for the boy’s future. What he will learn – and quickly – about life as the youngest member of a criminal family, results in a story of extreme levels of constant and increasingly unbearable anxiety and fear.

Everything about Michôd’s direction and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw’s photography is measured, considered and necessary, while editor Luke Doolan ensures the deceptively languorous pace – reminiscent of a recurring nightmare – renders the story both relentlessly and utterly compelling. Antony Partos’s score and Sam Petty’s sound design combine perfectly to create a soundscape of such soul-tearing complicity with the material that, at times, it was just impossible to hold back the tears.

The entire cast are outstanding and never put a foot wrong – with Ben Mendelsohn, Luke Ford, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton and Sullivan Stapleton all delivering career-best performances. But Frecheville – whose stunning turn as the cub of the pride – is a revelation. His scene, alone, in a suburban bathroom will break your heart.

Stripped of all the crime genre’s recently attendant glamour and neon, Animal Kingdom owes more to The Godfather than it does to Underbelly – but if you aspired to live the life that this family lives, regardless of what trimmings and advantages you might think came with the territory, you’d have to be seriously fooling yourself. This is an unmissable, landmark Australian film. See it.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition (Wednesday 16 June, 2010) of the Geraldton Guardian.

DVD Review: Mao's Last Dancer

Mao's Last Dancer. 117 minutes. Rated PG. Directed by Bruce Beresford. Written by Jan Sardi. Based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin.

Mao Zedong, the leader of the People's Republic of China from its inception in 1949 until his death in 1976, is, today, remembered as one of the most influential and controversial leaders in modern history. While his brand of Communist theory and policies is credited with having laid the foundation stones of contemporary China's position of power and influence in our world, the extremes with which his policies were enacted throughout the new republic have fuelled the controversy associated with the legacy of his rule to this very day.

Li Cunxin is a young peasant boy growing up in a small village in rural China who, at the height of Mao's Cultural Revolution, is inadvertently chosen by visiting delegates to study ballet in the capital, Beijing. The ruling Communist Party's desire for cultural supremacy soon sees him sent to the United States of America as a guest artist with the Houston Ballet, but as his success elevates him to international stardom, the ensuing culture clash finds Li having to choose between his newfound desire for personal and artistic freedom and the profound bond with his beloved family in China.

Sardi's (Shine, The Notebook) meticulous screenplay is absolutely up to the challenge of representing not only the complex political landscape of Communist China in the early 1970s, but also the heady, disciplined world behind the scenes of a major, internationally-renowned ballet company. Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Black Robe, Paradise Road) is one of Australia's most highly-respected directors – and his work here is finely nuanced, sensitive and brimming with cinematic confidence when dealing with the epic qualities a biopic with this kind of global resonance and significance demands.

Overall, however, the ensemble of performances are its weakest link, with only the superb Joan Chen (as Li's mother 'Niang'), Penne Hackforth-Jones (as the Houston Ballet's fearsome 'Cynthia Dodds') and Amanda Schull (as Li's first love-interest 'Elizabeth') really managing to bring the necessary flair to their performances that – whenever they are onscreen – lifts the film from a fairly standard level of engagement to an appreciably higher one. While Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Chi Cao is certainly up to the choreographic demands of his role as 'Li', his acting is no match for his dancing, and regrettably, particularly in his many scenes with Bruce Greenwood's Houston Ballet hero 'Ben Stevenson', it all ends up looking and feeling a little too earnest and, ultimately, disingenuous.

At a critical point in the story, Li says "I don't want to walk – I want to fly." The chief disappointment with this film is that it never actually manages to match this simple, yet fearless grand ambition.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Midwest Times.

Film Review: I Love You Too

I Love You Too. 107 minutes. Rated M. Directed by Daina Reid. Written by Peter Helliar

Television and film are vastly different mediums, and when writers, directors and actors attempt to cross over from careers in one to careers in the other, the results can be disastrous. George Clooney (who, perhaps not ironically, is mentioned in I Love You Too) did it – gaining international fame in ER before going on to build an impressive CV in the film business. But for every George Clooney there's a cast of Friends, an almost impossibly successful sit-com, whose attempts at respectable film careers has, more often than not, resulted in an embarrassing poverty of ability and talent.

Jim (Brendan Cowell) is having trouble telling his gorgeous, well-adjusted and devoted girlfriend Alice (Yvonne Strahovski) that he loves her. The death of his parents in a car accident has stunted his emotional development and he works, rather endearingly, as a driver of the "largest miniature steam train in the southern hemisphere" – a tourist attraction that his father owned. He still lives in the bungalow out the back of the family home, which is now occupied by his pregnant sister (Bridie Carter) and her booze-loving partner (Travis McMahon). Finding himself newly-single, Jim meets the grieving widower Charlie (Peter Dinklage), and the two new friends set out to help each other reach new heights of romantic and emotional maturity.

There is a great deal to like and enjoy about comedian Helliar's debut screenplay and Daina Reid's (City Homicide, All Saints) assured, if unadventurous, handling of it. The performances are all well-grounded and every character gets their moment in the spotlight. Ultimately, however, the art of film is all about story, character and photography. With much of the action taking place either indoors or at night, I Love You Too ends up being all too one-dimensional and under-lit – one of the many ways in which it ends up resembling an expensive episode of Love Something Or Other as opposed to the fully-fledged feature film it is trying so hard to be.

As far as the story is concerned, there's an over-riding sense of clutter – a result of the script trying to tell us too much. The collision between Jim and Charlie, while feeling incredibly contrived, relievedly takes us away from the seen-it-all-before "you're my best mate" rubbish that suffocates the film's early scenes and threatens to collapse our interest and engagement within minutes. In the end, though, it all comes down to balance of character and story, and while Cowell works hard in the leading role, it is Dinklage (Death at a Funeral, The Chronicles of Narnia: Price Caspian) who walks away with the film in every scene he appears in. His vast experience and skill in front of the camera occasionally leaves his less-experienced and more television-drilled co-stars struggling to match the pace. The really positive thing about that, though, is that it is Helliar's script that gives him that opportunity – and with the services of an expert script editor, Helliar has a really exciting future as a script writer ahead of him. For an Australian film industry starved of even half-decent scripts, that's the best news imaginable.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Geraldton Guardian.