Odd. Thought it was going to be a horror film with an Aboriginal slant. There's a bit of mysticism. But it's not. It's a survival in the bush story. Only that doesn't happen until the last half hour. It's set in the South Australian outback but the bush is shot in the Blue Mountains which is slightly confusing.
Rodney Harvey is fine as an American teen who goes to Australia to met his dad, Bruno Lawrence, who doesn't seem to like him and deals with gangsters (sells marijuana). That's one of the several subplots. Miranda Otto is Lawrence's cute step daughter (introduced doing awkward aerobics) who Harvey is keen on - that's another subplot that doesn't really go anywhere. Anne Marie Winchester is wasted as Lawrence's parter and Otto's daughter. Tony Barry is a farmer. There's a local sleeze who eyes Otto and Harvey beats him up but that plot doesn't go anywhere either.
It's not a bad film it's been made with care, it just doesn't seem to know how to pitch itself. The plane crash survival stuff doesn't happen for too late. If they'd bought that up the front I think this would have played better. And maybe if Otto and Winchester were in the plane crash.
Some money's been spent on the soundtrack - there's Icehouse and Hunters and Collectors. A decent rousing instrumental track at the end. Oz movies website sais with some care and attention this could have been a decent teen action show. That's what it should've been. But commit. Show mum dying. Have him discover romance, proper romance. Beat a bully only set up the bully, play out the story. Make it logical where he gets his bush survival skills. There's ideas here but the film doesn't execute them.
No comments:
Post a Comment