After the media hype about this film comparing it to The Castle, and the recommendations of a number of people online, I went to see Kenny today.
First of all, the good: the character of Kenny himself is wonderful and truly Australian in its portrayal of a genuinely nice, unambitious, stoic bloke who enjoys his life and goes about his business with a sense of humour and forbearance. No-one respects his job (including his father and brother), his ex-wife is a harridan, his workmates are unreliable - but still Kenny does his thing and doesn't give in to cynicism or negativity. The relationship he begins to develop with an airline stewardess on his first flight overseas is wonderfully gentle and understated for an Australian movie. Some of the dialogue is quite subtly clever in a homespun, down-to-earth kind of way.
The bad: Kenny and his stewardess friend are about the only two positive characters in this story (with the possible exception of the Sushi Cowboy). The negativity and pessimism of every other incidental character, and the rather negative portrayal of Australian culture in general, are rather wearing. Although clearly meant to highlight Kenny's innate goodness, I'd feel ashamed to have this movie shown overseas and be represented as a culture by hoons setting fire to portaloos and well-dressed women after the Melbourne Cup urinating in the street. Fair enough, maybe we have people like this and it's a fair portrayal - but it's not the uplifting, feelgood celebration of Oz culture suggested by comparison to The Castle.
Overall, I couldn't say this is a movie you *have* to see, and I wouldn't turn you away from it either. I cringed throughout a lot of it, I chuckled a number of times and, despite seeing it coming from a mile, I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the finale. Never push too far a man in control of a sewerage tanker.
First of all, the good: the character of Kenny himself is wonderful and truly Australian in its portrayal of a genuinely nice, unambitious, stoic bloke who enjoys his life and goes about his business with a sense of humour and forbearance. No-one respects his job (including his father and brother), his ex-wife is a harridan, his workmates are unreliable - but still Kenny does his thing and doesn't give in to cynicism or negativity. The relationship he begins to develop with an airline stewardess on his first flight overseas is wonderfully gentle and understated for an Australian movie. Some of the dialogue is quite subtly clever in a homespun, down-to-earth kind of way.
The bad: Kenny and his stewardess friend are about the only two positive characters in this story (with the possible exception of the Sushi Cowboy). The negativity and pessimism of every other incidental character, and the rather negative portrayal of Australian culture in general, are rather wearing. Although clearly meant to highlight Kenny's innate goodness, I'd feel ashamed to have this movie shown overseas and be represented as a culture by hoons setting fire to portaloos and well-dressed women after the Melbourne Cup urinating in the street. Fair enough, maybe we have people like this and it's a fair portrayal - but it's not the uplifting, feelgood celebration of Oz culture suggested by comparison to The Castle.
Overall, I couldn't say this is a movie you *have* to see, and I wouldn't turn you away from it either. I cringed throughout a lot of it, I chuckled a number of times and, despite seeing it coming from a mile, I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the finale. Never push too far a man in control of a sewerage tanker.