A very good movie that just misses being a classic. There is some wonderful things in this. For starters the basic story is very strong - they licked a problem in the material by focusing on Roger East investigating, thereby giving the story an active protagonist. It looks fantastic – the East Timor locations are stunning, the people have this fresh presence because they’ve been seen so rarely on screen, the 70s period detail is excellent (love those shorts and sideburns). The stuff involving the Balibo Five themselves is great – good acting, some nice humour (“I didn’t think anyone watched Channel Nine news anymore”).
Where it is less good is on the Roger East side. We spend a bit of time with him but never get much of a sense of what sort of character he is; Anthony La Paglia just seems like this tubby guy clambering over rocks (East isn’t very fit – if he hadn’t have been killed he surely would have died of a heart attack soon after). La Paglia's perfomance is undercooked and the relationship between East and Horta never seems to click – sort-of friends, sort-of not, full of too many unanswered questions (how come Horta has so much time to play tour guide?).
The film also feels as though it’s missing some bits – say an Australian diplomatic official, or some representative of the government, to explain our position. Instead we get this Aussie guy recording video statements – it’s a big mistake to cut back to him after this emotional ending. It’s like “who cares about you, buddy, we care about people involved in the story.” I stress again, much to admire, you just wish it was that bit better.
No comments:
Post a Comment