A young indie rocker is forced to become the leader of his father's marching band just weeks before their major competition. With some help from the leotard-wearing Isabel Lucas, he must rearrange an iconic rock song and make sure the geriatric band members aren't brassed off. This falls largely into that lazy category that Australian films do so often. A simple plot line, set in a sleepy town with a bunch of clichéd Aussie characters that are meant to carry the film with their charm. This may work with classics such as Strictly Ballroom or the Castle, but in this film, the characters have no charisma, no spark, they get by purely on their musical talents. Isabel Lucas looks asleep during her performance, more so than usual and the lead role played by Sebastian Gregory provides a luckless character who an audience would fail to believe is capable of catching a fish, let alone a girl. The destructive weather that frames the story is a visual delight, however given the timing, I'm not sure that Australia is ready to see another quaint Queensland town swept away by storms.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Sarah's Key
(2010)
Harrowing
14 February 2011
An American journalist in Paris embarks on a story about the Holocaust and discovers connections between the past, her present marriage and her unborn child. Beginning as an article on the 1942 roundup of Jews in France as they were sent off to Auschwitz, it soon becomes a journey of self-discovery as the protagonist stumbles upon a terrible secret of a family forced out of their home and a young girl called Sarah who makes an impulsive decision to leave her younger brother locked in a cupboard. A film about the Holocaust is certain to be moving, but the circumstances in this one are harrowing, the truth astonishing, and the coincidences as unbelievable as the tragedy itself. It is a journalist's quest to dig up the lives of others and unleash the truth, but this film show the price of these actions. Sarah's Key takes us from Paris to Brooklyn to Florence and ultimately to the centre of the heart – showing that even the truth has its cost. And the sadness, as much as we try to unlock it, can never be erased.
Wild Target
(2010)
Felt rather robbed
14 February 2011
Wild Target is a remake of the classic French comedy, Cible Emouvante by British director Jonathan Lynn. Starring Bill Nighy as a middle-aged, socially awkward assassin, Victor Maynard, who falls for his intended target, the free-spirited Rose (Emily Blunt). Along for the ride is the hapless but sweet-natured Tony (Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame) who thinks he has landed on his feet as Victor's apprentice. Victor must battle with his possessive mother, a Norma Bates clone, whilst Rose gets in the way of his plastic-covered furniture and Bonsai trimming life – a life that has allowed him to get his hits done cleanly and efficiently. But his true battle is in his affection for the charming art-thief, Rose. There were some colourful scenes through London, especially Rose's bike ride through the National Gallery, and some exciting fight scenes, in particular an ear being blown off (a modern Van Gogh?) but ultimately I wasn't convinced of the unlikely romance and the film left me feeling robbed myself
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