arts&entertainment
reviews
Eco thrills deep in the forest “The Hunter” (M) FOUR stars for this Tasmanian-grown ecothriller forgives little visual moments that, while their validity doesn’t withstand close examination, don’t diminish a beautiful, exciting, tense and involving film. In a strong characterisation, Willem Dafoe stars as Martin, a reticent adventurer commissioned by a German firm to collect biological samples of a Tasmanian tiger for DNA study. Yes, we know the thylacine became extinct last century. But film can go where it wishes and the notion of a surviving Tasmanian tiger offers high semiotic opportunity. Martin, forbidden to tell anybody why he’s there, heads off into some spectacular wilderness to earn his fee. Unemployed forestry workers think he’s a greenie. The greenies protesting at the forest gate think the timber barons employ him. Daniel Nettheim directs Alice Adamson’s adaptation of the novel by Julia Leigh with care, connection to the theme and concern for its message. Martin bases himself in a house at the end of a track where Lucy (Frances O’Connor) lies ill in the care of her two children (promising juveniles Morgana Davies and Finn Woodlock), who wait for their father’s return from a long absence. If Martin finds a thylocine he must kill it to fulfil his contract. Eventually he does. Euthanasing an old, starving, weak, lonely animal is merciful and justifiable. But that’s not the film’s denouement. The film’s tensions are subtle and inexorable. The cast is good. The camera and sound crew who endured the difficulties of recording it merit praise for their artistry and endurance. For many, the film’s
cinema
Dougal Macdonald fifth star will be the environment – beautiful, challenging, no place for neophytes in search of an improbability. At Dendy and Greater Union
“Real Steel” (M) AT some time in the future, Charlie (Hugh Jackman) is doing the country show circuit with a beat up truck, a crude survival sense and a dilapidated fighting robot. He owes money. He has little prospect of making any. The mother of his 11-year-old son Max (Dakota Goyo) whom Charlie has never seen has died and her sister wants to adopt him. Max wants to spend six months on the circuit with Charlie. Max, a whiz at repairing bots, rescues one from a garbage dump, names it Atom and sets about refurbishing it. The story works toward pitting Atom against some truly heavy metal. Director Shawn Levy uses CG, models and other visual fakery devices to lead us to a denouement that only a cynic would denigrate. Charlie is never far because of the prize money. Living on junk food and soft drink, father and son set about getting to know each other. That’s not easy, even though writer John Gatins has shaped the plot around some familiar relationship contrivances to energise it. The screenplay is peppered with clichés lifted from films about parent and newlymet child learning to live with each other, confronting them with obstacles in prize contests augmented by wicked competitors.
Willem Dafoe as Martin in “The Hunter”. Once you set the bots in their true context, the plot has little novelty. But it has excellent predictability. The bots are magnificent. The sight and sound of a packed stadium screaming at a pair of them wrecking each other is a novel experience. But unless you are betting on it, how can you get emotionally involved with a battery-powered, wireless-controlled assemblage of metal, wire, plastic, transistors and hydraulic fluid? I approached “Real Steel” expecting a debacle. I was not disappointed, yet it was less dreadful than I feared, better than a complete no-brainer yet not so intelligent as to be uplifting. At all cinemas
Funny ‘Song’ gets serious Theatre
Wizard with a classic touch
Win the ultimate Canberra film festival gold pass valued at $1972 Entry at citynews.com.au/win. Prized sponsored by Transact 24 CityNews October 13-19
DIRECTORS Jon Garland and Kelda McManus have closely followed the classic MGM musical version of this timeless classic for this ambitious production. All the familiar songs are included and even an additional song cut from the film. Musical director Nicole Nunan has assembled an impressively large orchestra which does justice to the lush musical accompaniments, and a series of effective dance numbers, devised by Annette Sharpe, for the hordes of colourfully costumed munchkins, jitterbugs, flying monkeys, flowers and winkies, provide plenty of spectacle. Sixteen-year-old Nicola Hall is quite simply enchanting as Dorothy. Nailing “Over the Rainbow” early in the show with her endearingly naïve interpretation, she charmingly captures Dorothy’s wide-eyed wonderment without being cloying, and is assertive without being arch. Her three cohorts, Scarecrow
Theatre
“The Wizard of Oz” Phoenix Players, ANU Arts Centre until October 22 Reviewed by Bill Stephens (Cameron Boxal), Tinman (Lachlan Ruffy) and Cowardly Lion (Cameron Elvin) each provide entertaining high-points. As the wickedest possible Witch of the West, BJ Anyos has great fun chewing up the scenery. Watch out for the adorable Lullaby League and the Lollipop Guild and of course the scene-stealing pooch, Toto. This a delightful show for children of all ages (you included) and no doubt, by the time you read this, the pacing will have picked up, and the opening night stage-management problems resulting in slow scene changes, missed sound and lighting cues, and too many stage-hands being caught by the spotlight, will have been ironed out.
“Love Song” By John Kolvenbach, directed by Jordan Best, Centrepiece Theatre, at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, until October 15. Reviewed by Joe Woodward “LOVE Song” provides an engaging and easy night’s entertainment. Performed with zest and clarity, Jordan Best’s direction ensures the work surprises and delights right through to the conclusion. Kolvenbach’s play threads that line between the serious and the comedic. It develops from a funny exchange between an upwardly mobile couple exemplifying contemporary “cool”. Jim Adamik and Jenna Roberts excelled and the comedy worked, while the more internal and surreal aspects tended towards cuteness. While this was probably Kolvenbach’s intention for a most-commercial play, it meant little was revealed of the internal world of the central character Beane. Beautiful theatrics, through the use of scrim, gave us a fragmentary glimpse of the young man’s yearning for connection and love in a world that left him isolated and imploding. The simple visual construction of these surreal scenes was contrasted with the more realistic depiction of the couple, who also were imploding until challenged by Beane’s behaviour. The power of the production lies in its ability to seep into contemporary consciousness through a gentle and non-threatening way.