This new Adelaide film is overly sentimental, suffers from it’s length and while it has its moments it just doesn’t maintain quality throughout.
Frank Mollard, a housing broker, is divorced but can't move on or connect with his teenage son. One night, Mollard gets a phone call from his mother, which is strange since she died the year before.
Anthony LaPaglia provides a conflicted performance, sadly it seems to have little depth. Also the numerous shots of his character in silence prolong the film and add no value to the story. Often silence can be used to add realism, but in this case it didn’t work. Justine Clarke offers a mediocre performance, while Julia Blake is a stand out. John Clarke offers wonderful and much needed comic relief throughout.
Writer/director Matthew Saville has come up with an interesting concept for a film, but his realisation isn’t always there. With an overly predictable ending the film needed a more solid journey to take the audience on, yet this wasn’t there.
Overall it’s not awful, there are far worse films to watch. However, it suffers from being too sentimental, too long, having a cast of mixed ability and a unstable script. I do hope that this starts a new wave of Adelaide film and I think with some further training Saville will be a very talented writer, and I hope to see his name onscreen again soon.
4.5 Stars
Review by Benjamin Maio Mackay
Screening courtesy of Picture This
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