Denied the humungous budgets that Hollywood regularly squanders on smoke and mirrors and other juvenilia, local filmmakers need to work with cinema’s essential building blocks of story and character. For audiences seeking something that reflects the real world, something they might relate to, the rewards of going ‘off Broadway’ can be infinitely more satisfying than mainstream’s ear-splitting blockbuster.
Heath Davis has treated with sympathy and insight the travails of a broken-down former rugby league star in his hugely impressive directorial debut.
Ben Kelly (Steve Le Marquand) is a former champion who is now on his uppers. Having left the game in which he had attained a hero’s status, gambling and the grog have got the better of him and it is only the high regard of an old fan who won’t give up on him that keeps Ben out of the gutter.
Cec (Max Cullen) takes him into his home and, with his daughter Terri (Claire van der Boom), Ben starts the long journey that leads to self-realisation and redemption. But Davis does not let himself be sidetracked by the cheesy option of portraying Ben as just another bloke who has done wrong despite his essential heart of gold – life is never as cut and dried as that. Addiction does not allow for sentimentality, so Ben’s struggle will not come without collateral damage.
Cinematographer Chris Bland has beautifully captured the old-school toughness of Gladstone and a stellar cast of Australian actors do justice to Davis’s at times confronting but always heartfelt screenplay.
Le Marquand is outstanding – he looks the part, which is half the battle – as is van der Boom – the sexual tension that grows between Ben and Teri is a slow burn. As a footy tragic (go the Bunnies), it was fun to see Mark Graham running around again, although I did have a bit of trouble accepting the North Sydney Bears as a Queensland side, but that’s neither here nor there.
Screening at Ballina on the 23rd; check it out – it is a terrific movie.
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