Colin Eggleston seemed to launch himself as a talent to watch when this movie came out - but none of his subsequent movies impressed and it soon became obvious the real talent to watch was the writer, Everett de Roche, who soon established himself as one of Australia's leading screenwriters. It's a very clever, tricky idea of humans vs nature - a couple go away for the weekend and pick away at the world: throw cigarettes out the window, hit kangaroos, chop down trees. Eventually nature strikes back.
If I'm being really honest there's not quite enough story here for a feature, so it doesn't quite come off, but it's very skilfully done - I kept thinking of early Roman Polanski films. There are lots of noises, and jolts, and a creeping sense of unease.
The domestic spats between John Hargreaves and Briony Behets is pretty good but occasionally spills into TV on the nose dialogue (when it's restrained and implied it is much better). There's a bit of nudity from Behets who also does a masturbation scene - I guess it's a cheap special effect.
Hargreaves is very strong as always; Behets is less good although she matches him at times. Her fate is a superbly done sequence - the movie has a strong ending after tap dancing in the middle.
No comments:
Post a Comment