Boulevard of Broken Dreams somehow enabled Frank Howson and Peter Boyle to raise money for a slate of pictures starting with this - they later included Heaven Tonight, Beyond My Reach, Flynn, Hunting.
This is probably Howson's best movie. It's clearly autobiographical and has a really good heart, being about a child falling in love with theatre. Alan Shepherd is strong value as the little kid who goes to the city to stay with his grandma (Pat Evison, excellent) who works in the box office of a theatre run by Max Phipps. A panto is playing and Shepherd gets involved in the lives of people there: the star (Danielle Spencer) on whom he develops a crush, the whingy writer (Kym Gyngell).
There's a lot of lovely things on display here. Loving shots of Melbourne (Howson was one of the most Melbourne-philic directors around), fondness for theatre, the acting (it's a typical Howson combination of fun old hams and exciting new talent -for all his faults Howson had an eye for young actors eg Danielle Spencer, Guy Pearce, Alan Fletcher who has a small role in this). Spencer looks lovely. Her singing voice might've been more protected.
It's just frustrating that it isn't better. The running time feels padded, like most Howson films - when there was enough story potential. Why not use the fact his dad Gary Sweet is seen in a wheelchair at the beginning instead of never seen again? Just do a little plot with Evison and Sweet. Why not give Gyngell more of a story than whingeing about changes? Give Spencer more of a romance. Give Phipps more to do.
The biggest flaw - so, so frustrating because it's so easily fixable... the finale, one hour in, has Shepherd watching a show... falling ASLEEP and IMAGINING he's in the show... which he is for twenty minutes. I'm sorry you can't have a dream sequence in act three that goes for twenty minutes. Just have the actor (Murray Fahey) fall injured and have Shepherd have to step in. It was such a fixable flaw.
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