Well what can I say? I love Australian Cinema and sat down to watch this film with great anticipation. 5/5 stars from multiple reviewers, the descriptive hyperbole meter off the scale and the French throwing more palm leaves before it than an pre-easter procession. Couldn't lose.
So what went wrong? Well to start with not much....the stock and the glass used, soaked up the outback light and colour as well as I've seen, so Warwich Thornton knows how to shoot (Though it must be said, when doing panoramic shots of country-side do not and I mean, DO NOT hand hold the camera).
The pace and quiet of the film is something I enjoy a lot and I was initially intrigued by the characters. It was not long though before it became apparent that the two leads were not very good actors. This hurts a film that has little dialogue because it's only through the acting you can elucidate what's going on....and in this film there isn't much happening so that's kind of important. None of the cast were much chop.
It's impossible to do a spoiler for this film because so little happens and what does happen is so disconnected from what happens before and after that it doesn't matter anyway. Actually there may have been stuff happening it's just you are so disengaged from the characters by then that you don't care.
This film may be an attempt at realistic observation of it's setting and to this end it succeeds but any Australian current affairs programme over the last 30 years has done the same thing (with better narrative)so why bother? I am glad I saw this on television for free because I can honestly say....do not under any circumstances spend money seeing this film. Aside from the imagery every other aspect of this film is amateurish, turgid and at least 77 minutes too long for the half interesting idea at it's core.
So what went wrong? Well to start with not much....the stock and the glass used, soaked up the outback light and colour as well as I've seen, so Warwich Thornton knows how to shoot (Though it must be said, when doing panoramic shots of country-side do not and I mean, DO NOT hand hold the camera).
The pace and quiet of the film is something I enjoy a lot and I was initially intrigued by the characters. It was not long though before it became apparent that the two leads were not very good actors. This hurts a film that has little dialogue because it's only through the acting you can elucidate what's going on....and in this film there isn't much happening so that's kind of important. None of the cast were much chop.
It's impossible to do a spoiler for this film because so little happens and what does happen is so disconnected from what happens before and after that it doesn't matter anyway. Actually there may have been stuff happening it's just you are so disengaged from the characters by then that you don't care.
This film may be an attempt at realistic observation of it's setting and to this end it succeeds but any Australian current affairs programme over the last 30 years has done the same thing (with better narrative)so why bother? I am glad I saw this on television for free because I can honestly say....do not under any circumstances spend money seeing this film. Aside from the imagery every other aspect of this film is amateurish, turgid and at least 77 minutes too long for the half interesting idea at it's core.