This has a fantastic central idea, one that I related to a lot - a man throws in a high paid job as a lawyer to follow his artistic dream. I wish Williamson had done it about someone of his generation who tried it - or, if he'd made it about a younger person, get it in the 70s - as Bob Ellis pointed out, he's only really comfortable with his own generation. The characters here feel like the stock Williamson types with thirty years slashed off - money hungry personal trainer, money hungry wife, money hungry mistress, money hungry real estate agent. The women all wait for the men. The best character is the vain, older reporter - I think in part because Williamson can just relate to him more.
As in Dream House there's comments how the male lead is good in bed. There are some funny lines, the stand up comedy is quite funny and that is hard to do, it does move along, and Williamson has a knack as a story teller... there's tension in that you don't know who Jack is going to end up with, and his relationship with Kelli is quite sweet. It has a humanism at its heart and an enjoyable core message - don't wait to have a baby, babies don't care about money.
Structurally I feel this would have been better off if the whole thing had been set at the resort and been about a fifty something who threw away his career to become a comic. He would have known the characters and the "world" better. His sense of the younger generation is not strong. It is hard to be connected to the younger world up at Sunshine Beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment